Leashed
by nhannah
Summary: In the Inuzuka clan, potential mate scouring is a responsibility given only to their doggie counterparts. So when Akamaru one day humps Sakura by the leg, why is everybody looking at Kiba like it's a good thing? KibaxSaku.
1. Prologue

**Summary: **In the Inuzuka clan, potential mate scouring is a responsibility given only to their doggie counterparts. So when Akamaru one day humps Sakura by the leg, why is everybody looking at Kiba like it's a good thing? [KibaxSaku]

**Author's Note: **It has been awhile since I posted anything. Think of this as my... first try at fanfiction after the longest hiatus ever. I'm so sorry it isn't up to par. I've been avoiding both writing and blogging for the longest time due to lack of inspiration, and the fact that everytime I wrote something down, it just sounded pathetic. Ugh.

Anyway, please read and review.

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**Leashed**

Chapter I: Kiba

Marriage. Trust. Commitment.

As far as Inuzuka Kiba was concerned, the whole ordeal and all its ingredients were but a recipe for disaster. To the youngest member of one of the most sacred clans ever known to Konoha, Village of the Hidden Leaf, freedom and the blistering sensation of cold wind through his wild brown hair was enough to call what he had the perfect life.

Say what people may, but Kiba was all up for brutally defending his clan, the Inuzuka clan, if the time ever came for that legendary debate between the few prestigious clans of Konoha.

Nope, the Inuzukas weren't all that keen on upholding tradition or law like the Uchiha's were. And no, they didn't exactly have to kowtow to superiors. Plus, rules and regulations? Who needed another stuck-up Hyuuga strutting the streets like they owned the place? As far as Inuzukas were concerned, a clan didn't need to be painstakingly made up of law-abiding citizens who brandished their clan logo on whatever articles of clothing they wore as if they advertising their lineage like walking infomercials. The prestige of a clan wasn't about personal hygiene or pale-faced good looks. And, best of all, they most certainly did not have a need to get betrothed so young as to end their youth prematurely.

So when his teammate, Hyuuga Hinata, of the prestigious rival clan, the Hyuugas, came along one day to tell him the horrible news of her sudden betrothal, Inuzuka Kiba blessed the Gods and crossed his heart that he was born exactly who he was – an Inuzuka.

"Damn, Hinata-chan," said Kiba, scratching the back of the head for an invisible itch (or possibly fleas). "I can't believe your parents are hitching you off with someone! And so young…"

Fellow teammate Shino gave his two cents to the ordeal before Hinata had a chance to reply. "Kiba-san, if I would be so bold, I don't think you're making her feel any better."

Kiba turned to his shaded friend and frowned, cursing the day Hinata had gotten the guy a book on social etiquette. _'What?'_ the brown-haired youth cried scornfully in his head. _'He gets to chapter three and suddenly he knows more about human emotions than I do?'_ In explanation to his sudden feelings of resentment, Aburame Shino of the Aburame clan wasn't exactly what ordinary citizens would call a, 'normal guy.' Bugs being their expertise, human interaction as well as the ability to reply in a way suitable to it was not exactly Shino's cup of tea.

Before the argument could go any further between both Kiba and Shino, however, Hinata, the only girl in the team, raised her voice to silence any ideas of a clever retort. "I-I-I didn't like the idea either, Kiba-kun," she stuttered politely, fingers a massive twitchy dance as she struggled with her reply. "B-but father knows best. And Neji-nii-san believes they're making the right c-choice."

At these words, Kiba suddenly found his brows furrowing. "What?" he yelled, a little louder than he had imagined it would be. Passer-bys stopped and granted the three shinobis with looks of unmasked curiosity. "Your bastard cousin is in on this, too?"

"A-actually," said Hinata, her voice shaking more than ever, milky eyes drawn to her feet, so she wouldn't have to face the flaring temper of her boisterous teammate. "H-he's the fiancé…"

Kiba's jaw dropped. Shino seemed to blanch a little, if that was even possible. And Hinata grew five shades of red that day.

"You're kidding me!" cried Kiba, again. But when no answer came to negate her given statement, Kiba could do nothing more than cry even further, "B-but that's… that's gotta be some kinda felony, isnt't it? Isn't that incest or something?"

"Hyuuga marriages are often made within the family, Kiba-kun," stated Hinata, matter-of-factly. Though by judging from the way she still kept herself from making eye contact, and how the color seemed somehow drained from her face, it was very likely that even this, as a statement, did little to comfort her about her situation. "F-father says it helps keep the bloodline p-pure."

"I agree, Kiba-san," added Shino upon some after-thought. "Inter-family marriages happen all the time, especially among old clans like the Hyuugas. Even the Aburames, at one time, had gone through a first-cousin marriage phase. It maintains the family lineage. Ensures bloodline techniques are maintained throughout the ages."

Kiba couldn't believe what he was hearing. First Hinata spouts the craziest news of her betrothal to her _cousin _(Kiba still couldn't get his head around the idea) and next Shino decides that this ordeal is a perfectly natural one.

What the hell kind of universe was he living in, anyway? Were they still in Konoha? Still ninjas? Did everyone still live ordinary lives and have missions to complete or had the world gone completely off its rocker?

"No! I refuse to believe it!" said Kiba, eyes glaring in its typical roguish way. With Akamaru growling by his side, matching his master's fury with his own, Kiba suddenly took on a peculiar canine physique and aura. "You're way too young to get married, for one thing, and cousin-to-cousin marriage is strictly… sick! If I were you, I'd march straight up to your father and demand he get me outta that marriage! You may be a Hyuuga, but some rules are made to be broken – this being a downright example of one!"

Hinata smiled sheepishly, bemused, yet upset by her teammate's lack of support on the matter. "I-I'm s-s-sorry, Kiba-kun," she muttered at last. "I-I just don't have it in myself to defy my father. H-Hyuugas and tradition cannot be separated, not unless I cut myself out of the clan entirely."

Shino nodded, keen to show his understanding of human emotion. "I agree with Hinata-san," he said, not unkindly. "Though you are right to believe that not all rules are to be strictly followed, matters such as betrothal are something to look seriously at. We would not make very good friends if we had her do otherwise."

Kiba sighed, submitting, at last. As much as it pained him to see one of his best friends and teammates in such a horrible position, he knew well enough that they were right. "Okay, Hinata-chan," he said, finally. "If that's how it is, I guess there isn't much we can do about it. Just… promise me you don't rush into it, okay? You're like a sister to me. I don't want you to live the rest of your life all miserable."

Hinata smiled, a small, yet beautiful smile that somehow seemed to light up the entire street despite the fact that she was still unhappy deep down, and her future was bleak with the prospect of marrying someone she cared for as only a relative should. "Thank you for understanding, Kiba-kun, Shino-san," she said, with the slightest of the famous Hyuuga-bows. "B-but, if I may ask, Kiba-kun – does not the Inuzuka clan have rules for betrothal? Aren't you the next in line for head position, as well?"

Grinning, Kiba stuck up a thumb. "Of course we have rules, Hinata-chan!" he said. "In fact, it's one of the few rules we actually stick to! For us Inuzukas, mating is a life-time ritual, and potential life-time mates are chosen by us by our dog-partners. This means that as long as Akamaru doesn't give me the green light for the perfect mate, I'm free to go as I please until I reach full adulthood. And when that happens, I can take up leadership role despite being married or not! And I plan to be bachelor for life!"

"Oh!" said Hinata, white eyes wide to emphasize her awe in the matter. "And when Akamaru chooses your mate, are you not allowed to say no either?"

"Nope. It's an instinct thing. When Akamaru knows, I can't avoid it no matter what."

"Well, then, how would you tell when Akamaru finds you your mate?" asked Shino, his voice, despite curiosity, giving out its usual deadpanned effect.

"Oh, I'll tell all right. Akamaru will show his approval by first trying to mate with her. This is typically seen as humping her leg or something, usually non-stop until he thinks I've gotten the hint and passes her on to me."

"Aah," said Shino, and the next few words that would then leave Shino's unseen lips were those that, unbeknownst to Kiba, would turn his entire world, quote, 'off its rocker.'

"Then would that make Sakura-san your new mate, Kiba-san?"

Kiba turned.

Suddenly, it was as if everything was in slow motion.

Kiba could swear he heard nothing come out of Haruno Sakura's mouth, even as her lips moved and her legs shook in attempt to kick off his furry friend, Akamaru, from further enveloping her in shameful dog-sex. A mass of swirling colors. Memories of all the freedom he had ever tasted flashed before his eyes. Of the wonderful lazy days laying on the dirt with his head propped up on Akamaru's back. Of the fun times he would have, leaping the wilderness as if he himself were canine. Of all the times he rode through his life, only boy and dog, master and faithful companion. All this, and so much more, replaced by the scene now staring mercilessly at him

"KIBA!" screamed Haruno Sakura, possible future mate of Inuzuka Kiba, forever more. "GET YOUR MUTT OFF OF ME BEFORE I KICK BOTH YOUR FLEA-BITTEN ASSES!"

All of a sudden, Inuzuka Kiba found himself _leashed._

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**Author's Note: **I'm sorry it sucked so terribly. I can't... get sentences to link properly any more! Writing now feels so sticky and forced. I miss it just being a hobby and something that flows out well and naturally. So sorry you probably didn't get what you're hoping for. :'(


	2. Inuzuka

**Author's Note:** YAY! I'm so glad to have gotten this done so soon. I consider it a huge enough feat to write a chapter, but to have gotten it done in a couple of hours? Miracle! Anyway, I've read all the reviews, and am proud to tell you all that I have managed to present you with a lengthier second chapter. Consider the first part as just a messy prologue-thingy, k?

This time around, I decided to go with a first-person point of view, since I reckon I'm better at it than I was third-person. So don't be surprised by the incredible switch in writing style. :)

Read and review!

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Before I begin, I'd like to announce that this chapter has been proudly written and is dedicated to all my wonderful reviewers. To Sakura00017, dracolady1441, minniemousemom, Xx-Silent Ookami-Xx, BAH-BAM, uchiha miyo, HoneyFlower15, speedangel and Kcoolkat24, thank you for the push! I hope you enjoy this reading this as much as I did writing it.

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Chapter II: Inuzuka

_(Sakura)_

When I first opened my eyes to that mind-blowing day that would forever change my life from happy, independent, _single_ Haruno Sakura, top medic-nin and rising superstar kunoichi of Konoha, I most certainly didn't expect to get hitched. If I did, I probably would have dressed better for the occasion, as, on that day itself, my hair, as if predicting a disaster without it telling me, was downright hideous. It was a pink, ugly mess, and I didn't even bother to run a comb through it, envisioning, after all, an ordinary day of merely going through rounds in the hospital I worked in. My attire, too, was nothing to be proud of, as I had simply donned my usual red top, blue spandex shorts, knee-high boots and the pocket-skirt familiar to all medic-nins that I had been accustomed to since… what, 14?

Yep, today was to be a normal day. No crazy, eye-popping announcements for elopement from a certain dog-nin friend of mine was predicted to appear anywhere within my proximity as far as I was concerned.

And, yet, irony.

It was only after doing my usual chores around the hospital that this insane event occurred to me. I was tired, sore, and in need of some serious downtime with a bowl of long-kept chocolate pudding in my apartment by the time my job was over for the day, when, on my way home, I spotted some familiar faces: Hyuuga Hinata, Aburame Shino and Inuzuka Kiba, or, formerly known better to us all as Team 8, were huddled to themselves in the middle of a small, nosy crowd, unaware of both my presence and the fact that, all of a sudden, Kiba's canine companion had disappeared from his master's side to suddenly make his way towards… yes, you guessed it, _me._

"Hi, Akamaru," I said, nervously. I was a cat person by principle. Dogs were big, loud, unpredictable, slobbery and never far from unlocatable odors. Besides, what would my neighbours say if I were to suddenly bring a ginormous dog the size of Akamaru into my crammed little apartment?

"Umm…" I started to mumble some more, unsure of what to say as the huge canine drew even closer to me. This was… awkward, to say the least. Weren't most dog-nins well trained and obedient? Shouldn't they at least be leashed or something? He could probably eat a small civilian whole, by the looks of his jaws. And what… large… jaws they were. Capable of devouring me, maybe?

My hands shook in fists by my side, preparing for whatever doggie thing it was likely to do next.

Bark? Hiss? (oh, wait, do dogs even do that?) Snarl at me? Bite me?

But no. None of the above was even close to how… intimate Akamaru chose to greet me that day.

Next thing I knew, I found myself being engulfed by Akamaru's entire size. The big, white dog lowered his front legs and raised his lower region and started an act that looked very similar to an animal's version of corpus.

My eyebrows flew up my humongous forehead. By Kami, this dog was SEXING ME!

Feeling horrified, sick, shocked and mystified all at once, I didn't notice Shino turn to finally acknowledge me, his voice deadpanned and nonchalant as he pointed my predicament out to the rest of his teammates as well.

I did, however, notice Inuzuka Kiba stare at me with eyes the size of your regular saucepans, jaw dropped almost totally to the ground and everything.

'Son of a bitch,' I thought to myself, glowering at Akamaru's master as said Akamaru continued his sexual duties upon the whole of my leg. 'How could he stand there staring stupidly at me like that when he should be rushing to my honor and pleading his shame? His dog is _fucking _me, for God's sake!'

I wanted to yell at him. And I did, too. I yelled, "KIBA! GET YOUR MUTT OFF OF ME BEFORE I KICK BOTH YOUR FLEA-BITTEN ASSES!" in a tone I hoped would portray venomous threat.

It didn't, I was sad to hear, later on, but, on the upside, it did seem loud and far-reaching enough to snap the jaw-hanging idiot out of his reverie.

"Akamaru," he started, yanking his dog off my leg as if he was holding on to a final life-line. "What the hell, Akamaru! I-I can't believe you'd do this to me!"

I faltered for a second there, completely taken-aback by what Kiba had just said. 'Can't believe he'd do this to you?' I wanted to scream, knowing that, yes, I was probably overreacting about this, but, hell, what to do! I was having a rough enough day as it was. I just wanted to go home and sleep it off, no drama.

"Kiba, shouldn't that dog of yours know enough not to hump poor bystanders?" I said, instead. "I could have been killed!" Again, the melodramatic actress. Blame Ino. Haha.

But, somehow, Kiba was back to that ridiculous glazed look of his. Like he had seen the end of the world or something, and was currently traumatized by his own vision.

"Yoohoo, Kiba!" I tried, waving my hands in front of his eyes in attempt to, again, try and snap him out of it. No such luck. Kiba was in no-man's land, for whatever reason he seemed to carry, and I just couldn't be bothered with trying again. I just want to sleep, damn it!

"Fine!" I said at last, having no reason to assume that whatever I had been saying or currently was saying for the last couple of minutes was registering only as, 'blablabla babble babble babble' in Kiba's head. "I'm going home now. Don't bother to apologize or anything."

That last shot of sarcasm was my last expression of resentment, and, somehow, it was the only thing that Inuzuka Kiba seemed to hear, apart from my screaming to get his mutt off of me before I kick both their flea-bitten asses, of course.

"Wait, you can't go!" he cried after me, looking a little less dazed than before.

"And why not?" my clever retort. Stupid me. Always so straightforward and endlessly in search of explanation. Why couldn't I have left it at that? Why couldn't I just call it a day anyway and never asked anymore of it? If I had been anymore brighter, had been the proper kunoichi I was praised as by my elders in the hospital so many times before, I would have probably noticed the pale-faced, wide-eyed-ness of Kiba's teammates, Hinata and Shino, behind him. I would have probably deduced, from all their terrified expressions, that something awfully fishy was up, and done what a smart, respectable kunoichi would, and made a break for it.

I would never again forget the next few words to have left Inuzuka Kiba's lips: "Sakura," he began, nice and subtle, no hints of following life-turning events whatsoever. "For Akamaru to try and mate you like that makes you… my…"

And then even he couldn't say it, because he looked so utterly shocked and in-fear himself that the words wouldn't leave him.

"WHAT?" I yelled, unassuming, yet again.

"You're gonna be his wife, Sakura," said Shino.

That's when I blacked out.

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My eyes opened, groggily, from what I assumed must have been deep sleep and a horrible nightmare. "Thank God," I mumbled to myself, slipping out of a bed I recognized as my own from an apartment that was small, crammed, and, most wonderfully, all mine. "It was just a bad dream… no, nightmare. Yeah… you're fine, Haruno, now all there is to it is just another day of work around the hospital. Check the clock, 9am as usual and I'm most probably late…"

But it wasn't 9am, I quickly realized. I wasn't late for a shift that would normally start fifteen minutes later. It was 1.12am, according to the alarm-clock by my bedside; the same alarm-clock that never properly did its job of waking me up right, and yet, at the same time, never failed to be wrong. If this was true, then it was still the same day… just a couple of hours away from that horrible nightmare.

I got up and rushed out of my bed room, only quickly realizing on my way out that I was still in my morning attire, medic-skirt, boots and everything.

"Please, please!" I found myself praying for the first time in a long, long time. "Please let me just have been too exhausted to have changed before, and that all that was just…"

No luck.

Never luck.

Not for Haruno Sakura, at least.

Today's trail of events just never seemed to stop, did it?

When I appeared in my living room, I was frozen right in mid-run by a sight I thought I would never, ever see. A male. In my apartment. A male that was certainly not Uzumaki Naruto, my loudmouthed best friend, who would come by my place all the time for an obviously-platonic-and-in-no-way-bearing-sexual-tension sort of way. A male that was not Kakashi, my old ninja instructor, either, who would normally drop by to borrow something miniscule like coffee and ask me how the weather has been. By Kami, the male wasn't even Uchiha Sasuke, the guy I've been endlessly proving my love to since I was 12, now turned traitor, and sworn by blood to take our poor little village down by hook or by crook.

Instead, this male was someone I was hardly familiar with aside from the typical, "Hellos" or "Goodbyes" and maybe on the rare occasion, the ordinary patient-to-medic routine.

This male was Inuzuka Kiba, the man I had just met a few hours ago. The man who was, according to my nightmare (and hopefully not at all true!), my future husband.

Kami, that sounded weird.

"Hey," said Kiba, looking cozy on my couch with a bowl of chocolate pudding on his lap (yes, the very same chocolate pudding that I've been saving for this very night, by the way!). "I, uh, brought you to your room after… umm… just now. Hinata-chan thought it was best I stay with you for a while to explain…"

"Oh," I said, my mouth forming a big, 'O' shape in what I guessed must have looked very stupid from his point of view. "Well… then… explain."

Kiba shrugged. "It's Inuzuka family tradition that dogs find the potential mate for his master. When they do, this is normally seen as humping. So, as Akamaru kinda humped you, I guess…" Kiba flopped his hands just as stupidly as my mouth formed the big, 'O' shape. "You're my…"

I stopped him just in time. I really didn't need to black out twice in a day, seriously. And by the looks of Kiba and his releasing a huge breath, I can tell he was glad for my stopping him, too.

"It's not confirmed, though, of course, right?" I responded. "I mean, Akamaru humps, 'potential mates,' you said. That hardly makes it a confirmation, doesn't it?" I know I sounded awfully helpless and ungrateful at that moment. As if I was trying for any possible loopholes to get out of it.

Kiba shrugged, again, just as uncomfortably. "Potential is usually just a fancy term," he said, not looking me in the eye. "It's usually permanent. Dogs rarely make mistakes in our clan. Not when his humping you was done several times, definitely."

"But Akamaru only humped me once! I could be a rare case! It could be my perfume! I know it could because it smells like raspberries and cream and all day today male co-workers from the hospital were telling me I smelled delightful and according to Ino that's a sign of sexual attraction. Its likely Akamaru finds raspberries and cream delightful, too, right? Especially since he's a dog and dog's have got way better sense of smell than we humans do, or so I'm told, again, by Ino. Right?"

Kiba shrugged. "It could be." His reply sounded hopeless despite my babbling.

Then things grew quiet. Both I and the youngest Inuzuka to take over the clan one day knew nothing of what to say to one another. Hardly surprising, as we never really spoke on a daily basis. It was in these few long, uncomfortable minutes of silence that I noticed how ridiculously crammed my house was, especially with the appearance of another individual soul. I also began noticing small, insignificant things that did nothing to ease the tension. Like how my couch was actually a two-seater and what some people would call a love-seat. How both Kiba and I were sitting on said love seat. How suddenly my skirt and spandex felt awfully short and revealing. And how Kiba was… shirtless.

God, did he always have _abs?_

I wanted to slap myself. But instead I found myself blushing profusely. A feat not missed by my future husband for life.

"I think I should go now," said Kiba (thank, God, he wasn't as inept as Naruto!), finally noticing how strangely red I was turning. "I'll swing by tomorrow to pick you up."

Wait, wha-?

"You're coming again tomorrow?" I snapped, a little more demanding than I thought it would turn out. Who knew my reaction to surprise had such remarkable similarity to that of a temper tantrum. Ino was right. I really do need to see her anger-management therapist.

Kiba nodded. "Of course," he said, looking strangely at me like he didn't expect my surprise. "Mum would have to know of this, and I'm pretty sure she'd want to meet her future daughter in law, too."

What! MUM! Only day one and I was off to see my in laws all ready! Geez, this boy knew how to make an impression, all right.

"Wait, wait, wait, hold your horses there, buddy!" I said, stopping the Inuzuka in his tracks as he did mine just a while ago. "You can't be serious. Just because Akamaru humped me doesn't automatically make you my husband!"

"Of course it does." Why Kiba started putting on a more demanding air all of a sudden was beyond me. But, again, I'm not as emotionally intelligent as I used to be. Not now, anyway.

"Just because YOU'RE all right to submitting yourself to a destiny chosen by your DOG doesn't mean I'm okay with the matter! I still have a say on whether or not I'm good with marrying you, you know!"

"And why wouldn't you marry me, _pray tell?"_ Kiba glowered, and I would have never imagined til this day that someone like him would have ever known to use the phrase, 'pray tell' in a sentence, let alone actually _using_ it.

"BECAUSE YOU'RE _YOU_!" I screamed, thinking at that moment that I could just explode. How this guy could be so blunt, so inconsiderate as to not notice was way beyond me. "Since little I imagined the one guy I would ever get hitched to was Sasuke. Or someone like Sasuke. Anyone like Sasuke. And you're not Sasuke, or like him, at all. You're… you're more of a Naruto. And I don't like Narutos, not like _that."_

Looking back, I should probably have chosen a few better words to describe my situation. Or perhaps I should have erased the whole statement all together. But at the time, I surely didn't expect my words to bother him so. That by equaling him to Naruto, the teammate who had once chased after me almost as reverently as I had Uchiha Sasuke, I was insulting his ego, and, thus, his manhood.

_Note to self, Sakura: do not say such things to a future husband._

"I'll pick you up at 8am tomorrow," growled Kiba, his dark brown eyes suddenly sharpened to the most frightening glare I had ever seen. "We're going to the Inuzuka estate. Dress nice."

"But I-!"

"And, no, you don't have a say in the matter," said Kiba, a hand already clasping the doorknob, his back turned to me, so I couldn't see the rest of what I imagined was a really intimidating expression. "As of now on, familiarize yourself to the name Inuzuka. Because that's exactly what you're marrying into."

And with that, he left.

I fell to my knees, suddenly weeping.

_Inuzuka Sakura_, the name sounded horrible in my head and on my tongue.

Here I was, young and naïve, having just casually been on my way home from work, totally innocent, when suddenly I found myself in a ritual I knew nothing about, attaching myself to a partner, a spouse, a _mate_, that knew just as little of me as I knew of him. No longer was I Haruno Sakura, 21, happily living my life, blissfully unaware of what the future held.

Now I knew why the Inuzukas allowed their dogs to run free.

It was the unassuming wives they kept leashed.

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**Author's Note: **Well, how d'you like? I do hope that this chapter was up to par, if not better than the first one. What d'you think about my switching to first person? Was it good, or should I have stuck to third person instead? Personally, I prefer this way better. It feels way more natural, more personal, and things moved a lot more smoothly than the jagged, formal feel of third person. I felt the humor came more casually, as well.

But, hey, what I say doesn't count. Tell me what you think. Reviews are good for the soul, and, definitely, the uninspired author. Please and thank you. :)


	3. Brownie Points

**Author's Note:** Dear readers, sorry it took so long for me to get this done, but in all honesty I was kind of waiting for my review count to reach 20 (is ashamed of selfishness). Now that it has though, I'm going to keep to my self-promise and give you your third chapter.

I hope you're happy with this, coz it sure took a lot of effort to write from the male perspective. I'm not that perfectly adept at Kiba's mind and way of thought, so I might have screwed this up a bit. Nonetheless, it's your interests that I'm trying to please, and because you guys asked for it, here it is.

Read and review, aite? :)

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This chapter is dedicated to all my wonderful reviewers. To Hana Hanie, dracolady1441, Xx-Silent Ookami-Xx, Crazy About Coffee, minniemousemom, Kcoolkat24, Mizuki-chan Uchiha, Ougi-san, DeeJay Reina, Tsukiko hoshino and KohoriNS6. Oh, and of course, to Kittens Hellfire. Thank you for helping me reach 21!

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Chapter III: Brownie Points

_(Kiba)_

It was 3.10am, just a couple of hours since I had left Sakura's apartment and flitted through the empty streets to my own room in the three-tiered Inuzuka estate at the edge of town. Everybody but the guard dogs outside were asleep by the time I snuck in, so I didn't find it much of a hassle to leap through my bedroom window, silent as the ninja I was supposed to be, strip myself down to my boxers and slide into bed, Akamaru's ears only slightly twitching as he acknowledged my arrival.

Right now, however, I was lying on my bed, staring hopelessly at the ceiling, unable to sleep despite the knowledge that tomorrow was definitely going to be a long, tiring day and that if I were to deal with it, I had better get a few hours of rest behind me.

'_Look at yourself, Kiba,'_ the little voice in my head muttered to me as I drew invisible circles at the ceiling above with my fingers as an alternative to counting sheep. _'21 and engaged, all ready. So much for being a free-bird til death do us part, huh?'_

Rules. Manners. Children. All that didn't go with me. The name Inuzuka Kiba didn't belong as a husband, let alone a family man. It was tough enough that my mum wanted me to take up leadership of the Inuzuka clan, but the idea of taking it up with a life-partner and (God forbid) _children_ by my side was simply… inhumane.

"Damn it, Akamaru," I found myself hissing through my teeth, rolling over to glare down at my so-called _'loyal best friend'_ who was fast asleep by the edge of my bed, seemingly ignorant to the turmoil he had put me through in just a split-second of sudden heat. "You've no idea what you've done. Why _her_, of all people?"

When I envisioned myself in the future, I never did expect to tie the knot with anyone. But in the off chance that I did happen to stumble upon a rough day, was one beer too overdosed and probably had nothing better to do than to risk my perfect free life to a life of chains, the wife I _did_ have in mind would have to be someone a little more inconspicuous. Reserved. Sweet and tender. Fair. Cute. Nicely obedient and a little more on the gentle, quiet side.

Okay, _yes,_ I admit it – I used to have the biggest childhood crush on Hinata, my teammate for all these years. But even you have to confess that girls like that, like Hinata, would make the perfect spouse to any man (if said man chose to get married at all, I mean). She's calm and sweet and speaks only when absolutely necessary. She doesn't simply explode on the spot and kill your eardrums with declarations for explanation, unlike _some_ people I know.

While Sakura was nice and all (maybe), I had the exact same opinion of her as she had of me. She wanted a Sasuke, I preferred a Hinata. Admittedly, I know that I can be a tad too loud and obnoxious for my own good, which is why I think Akamaru was wrong to have chosen Sakura in the first place. Both she and I are too hazardous, too rambunctious, to be paired up with one another. Think time-bombs. Two of them. That certainly wouldn't make a good match.

_So why her?_

I tried to scrape out some optimism about my betrothal to Sakura:

For one, she was clever, that's for certain.

Two, she was a top medic-nin; the top most for her age and probably second only _in the world_ to Tsunade, in fact, which would be good for my medical expenses, I expect, and probably good for the clan, personally, too. After all, how many ninja families in Konoha can boast the fact that they have one of the most sought-after medic-nins _in the world_ to their dispense? Certainly not the _Hyuugas._

Three, she most likely had a good personality, though, til this day, I am uncertain about this statement. I do, however, choose to try to believe this as she somehow manages to keep to the good books of Uzumaki Naruto, who doesn't simply befriend people if they don't have a good attitude.

…_But, then again,_ there is Gaara, who was a mass-murderer and probably still is a raging psychopath at the time Naruto befriended him. And that Uchiha guy, who is Naruto's self-proclaimed best friend despite being on the verge of tearing this city down to the roots. And Sai, who is just plain weird, what with his stomach-bearing dress sense and that freaky smile that seems to somehow mentally rape people without them realizing it. And...

_Oh, God, I can't do this._

No matter how hard I tried to put on a sunny disposition, Haruno Sakura's faults just seemed to scream at me right in my face.

One, she had temper problems. I deduced this from the fact that Naruto never left her vicinity without at least sustaining a couple of bruises (and if that's the least of it, you can expect a few broken internal organs and fractured bones to be her response of a hard day at work).

Two, she was loud, an obvious downside to any relationship. After all, who'd want to be hitched to a woman who was screaming in their ears 24/7? If I wanted to be yelled at, I'd stick to forever living with my mum, thank you very much. I don't need two crazy women telling me to take a shower before I go to bed.

Three, she had incredible mood-swings. This I can testify for, for real. I saw it, just a couple of weeks ago, during my trip down to the hospital. I wasn't her patient that day, thank God, but whoever it was that was, certainly had a tough time trying to bear with Sakura as his nurse. One second she was all polite in her professional calm and formalities, the next she was blaring down at him about not taking the medicines she had prescribed a week earlier.

Four, she was a stalker. Again, I have real life references for this fact. Uchiha Sasuke, for one, and I can swear, too, that she once was after Hyuuga Neji.

Five, and probably the thing I feared most – she had pink hair. NATURAL pink hair. Can you imagine having children with her? I'm not going to have to admit even _having_ a son if he's going to be born a pink-haired dandelion! Inuzukas have, for so many years, managed to walk the streets as confident brunettes becoming of any proper man. The furthest any of our kin had ever gotten with experimental hair colors was by my cousin Yuudai, who was born with a mop of dark purple hair – and even _that_ was made subject to many a family jibe for all these years. So kindly put yourselves in my shoes and imagine me, KIBA, having a son with PINK hair. No way, man. _No. Freaking. WAY._

All these reasons, I realized, was starting to make matters worse, rather than doing what I had initially planned to and make me feel better about my early betrothal. So not wanting to dwell on the matter any further, I forced myself to empty my head of all thoughts, good or bad, and focus on some serious shut-eye.

After all, I'm going to need plenty of it if I'm going to have to deal with what is most likely going to be a complete migraine tomorrow.

* * *

Tie, check. Shiny black shoes, check. Hair?

I licked my fingers and swept them through my unruly brown hair before looking, again, into the mirror to study my reflection.

'_You look like shit, Inuzuka,'_ was the first thing to come to mind, as my legs twitched and the blood ran cold through my hands and fingers, making me put on this sort of pale, sick-looking disposition of a man meeting his untimely end.

I was a train-wreck that morning, there were no other more suitable words used to describe it. After having paced back and forth around my bedroom floor for a whole half hour, I had finally mustered the guts to meet up with my mother in the back yard, where she was going through her morning training regime with Kuromaru, her dog-nin companion.

Fidgeting uncontrollably, I spilled the whole of my situation to her, to which her response was to look at me wide-eyed for what felt like forever, studying me like I was a stupid little untrained pup, before clasping her arms around me and yelling in what I somehow managed to comprehend as joy.

"WELL, stop standing around here in that dirty old coat of yours, get dressed and pick her up, all ready!" she finally said upon releasing me from her monster hug.

Whether she noticed that I was sending off an incredibly gloomy aura that day was doubtful. She seemed so ecstatic by the fact that her son was finally going to become a _proper young gentleman_ and that Akamaru had chosen for me such a _qualified young woman_ to help me lead the Inuzuka clan that her usually top-notch senses were uncharacteristically clouded that morning. But Kuromaru seemed to take notice, and when he did, his response was a small, suspicious looking grin and his best wishes. "You're going to be fine, Kiba-chan," he said, unhelpingly.

My nod lacked enthusiasm, but it was enough to keep the large beast satisfied, as he licked his chops and sauntered off elsewhere, back to the side of my beaming mother, most likely.

So, now, here I was.

It was only fifteen minutes past eight when I arrived outside Sakura's doorstep, a considerable feat for me, I must add.

I had rung the doorbell twice out of impatience, and, having received no answer from the other side, now began to rap on said door madly and shout, "Sakura, would you hurry up? I've been here for ages, damn it!" A little bit of a white lie never hurt anyone.

What I got as a reply was a grumpy, "Don't get your panties in a bunch, I'll be right there, damnit!" followed by the sound of crashing into things and under-the-breath swear words.

_Oh, great._ It's always a good sign when your fiancé doesn't answer your door on time, is foul tempered, is probably a bit of a klutz and enjoys sending a good string of curses to the man she was about to be wed off to.

Not for the first time that morning, I found myself going, _'What the hell were you thinking, Akamaru?'_ and seriously considered having said dog's head examined.

"I'm READY!"

The door burst open, revealing my future wife, her nostrils flared, cheeks blazing, and eyes glaring down at me as if daring I say anything to send her off the edge; a brief comment about her attire, a shot at her tardiness, anything I said would have probably sent her flying at me with iron fists.

But instead of giving her the pleasure of making her day, I chose the smart approach and said very gently, "You look nice."

Sakura's eyeballs bulged.

"R-really?" her reply, obviously flabbergasted. "Oh." Her cheeks grew a darker shade of magenta, this time in pleasure rather than out of fury. "Th-thank you. You look nice, too."

I nodded. "Shall we?"

And Sakura nodded back.

With that, we were on our way. An unlikely pair, me and her, and, as we walked the crowded streets, I was pretty sure that we had a fair pair of eyes thinking similarly.

Never in a lifetime would anyone expect Haruno Sakura and I to be in such close proximity with one another, and dressed so... nicely for the matter, as well. Usually, if the two of us were to meet, it would be under missionary circumstances, the both of us probably swathed in bruises and clad in attire suitable only for the Konoha nin.

Today, however, was an obvious difference.

Today, for the very first time ever, the civilians of this town managed to see Inuzuka Kiba in a way even _I _never saw him before. Dressed head to toe in regal, black dinner-party attire. Hair less of a ruggedly handsome mess than usual. Lips no longer twisted into a cheeky grin. Eyes straight ahead, when not, of course, running brief inspections on the partner standing next to me.

Sakura, admittedly, was, as I put it, looking very nice, too.

Instead of her normal medic attire, she had opted for a simple dress – yellow spaghetti-strapped and falling just a bit above the knees, it was obsequious for her body and she looked like a proper lady. Her hair, too, was nicely done. A casual ponytail that left enough bangs to flatter what I just noticed was a heart-shaped face, small, full lips, a perky nose and bright, brilliant bottle-green eyes.

I could've let my eyes wander further down – to the neck, maybe, those bones running across her bare shoulders, perhaps, that small crease of what I could imagine would be two very full, milky mounds of—

But no, of course I didn't.

I'm a _gentleman, _after all.

"Kiba, is this your home?" Sakura finally gasped, reeling me out of further perverted thoughts.

I roused myself from said mounds (that I was not looking at, by the way) and grinned at her fascination. "Yep," my response to her gaping awe. "And it'll be yours, too, soon enough, so, come on. Mum'll be expecting us."

As I led the way to the grand front entrance of my family estate, I couldn't help but notice Sakura's gentle exhale, and the darkened expression she held as she nodded her affirmative and followed after me, shoulders back, looking ever the prized ninja everyone claimed her to be.

Unknowing to Sakura, it was in those brief moments of her wordlessly tagging along that I realized a couple of extra things:

One, Sakura was no wimp. She was a strong, dedicated kunoichi that most certainly did not back down on anything, be it an arm-wrestling match against men three times her size, or the fact that she was about to be tied down to a prestigious family she knew little to nothing of.

Two, she was very pretty. Even with her lack of makeup and the fact that she chose not to work hard at trying to impress me that morning, she somehow pulled off looking casually attractive without meaning to.

Three, in her firm dedication not to chicken out and maturity enough to allow me to take the reins of this situation she was forcefully pulled into; she had definitely managed to catch my interest and, with it, snag a couple of brownie points to add to her resume.

I hope that stating this so early in the ritual isn't going to jinx anything or whatever, but right now, at this instance, I suddenly didn't feel as though Akamaru was in such dire need of a brain operation after all.

* * *

**Author's Note:** There you go. 2,521 words, my longest chapter to date. In my opinion, writing from Kiba's point of view doesn't feel as great as it did Sakura's. Then again, as I've said before, it's your opinion that really matters. Leave me your reviews telling me what you think, coz if it were up to me, I'd stick to Sakura's POV more often than I would Kiba's. Then again, I can always try alternating between the two, for more chemistry, I mean.

What say you?

PS, I'm trying to reach 30 before my next chapter. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink and all that. Teehee.


	4. Phase I, the Initiation

**Author's Note:** Dear readers, thank you for sticking by me all this time, and for all your wonderful support towards my attempting to complete this fic! Really, I love you guys. But right now I have a couple of very important notes to bring up, so please spare me some of your time before heading into this next chapter.

One, I am thinking of changing the rating of this story to M, for certain mature themes that may or may not include a LEMON slash lime (I bet that lemon must must've brought your attention here, right?). If you guys aren't keen on the idea, please tell me via review, coz I haven't gone into it yet, so I still have time to change my mind.

Two, _and this is going to sound like a complete pain,_ I am really looking towards atleast ten reviews per chapter before moving on to my next update. I know this sounds awful, but, hey, an author's gotta live right? (cue boos and hisses from the audience)

Three, I'd like to inform you that the element of humor in later chapters may dwindle a bit (if not already). I kinda sorta have a plan in mind that may involve some action-y bits, so, yeah… But if you're against this, tell me whenever. I can scratch it out and think of something new.

Four, read and review. :)

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Special thanks to Xx-Silent Ookami-xX, minniemousemom, Kcoolkat24, Sakura00017, Mei fa-chan, Cehmacc14, SierratheCookieMonster and cbflogginin for your reviews!

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Chapter IV: Phase I, the Initiation

_(Sakura)_

Stepping through the grand crimson doors of the Inuzuka estate, I felt my breath hitch and leave me all together. That, and a bazillion butterflies take flight and do a hundred laps around in my stomach, making me want to heave out what little lunch I had before charging face-first into this day.

To say the least, Kiba's home was _big_. And why that came as a surprise to me, I have no idea, seeing as the number of tattoo-faced Inuzukas residing within the estate was probably enough to challenge the numbers of both Hyuuga and Uchiha family members put together(because there was only _one_ Uchiha member, remember? Haha. Okay, joke not funny… ).

I know I must have looked like a total fish just then, my jaw hanging open so ridiculously like that, but, hey, I'm a simple girl. The surname Haruno had never been gifted with any sort of special bloodline ability, thus labeling us unfit for high-profile status in the eyes of regular shinobi. So stepping into the home of a family that _did_ receive that sort of class was a sort of, how do you say,_ big deal_ for just plain, ordinary old me.

"By Kami..." I muttered, still barely taking everything in. "It's like a miniature Konoha."

Kiba shrugged, not uncomfortably. "You'll get used to it. Come on."

Jaw still dropped unattractively as though I was the village idiot, I was then led through the crowd of bustling Inuzukas keen to go about their merry way without even sparing a glance at the pink haired freak of nature that was myself and the next heir to their throne (do they even call it that?) that was my unlikely fiancé. There were shops in the Inuzuka estate, I noted, though just barely, as Kiba seemed to sort of drag me by the wrist in a hurry. There were shops and smaller houses and dogs of all shapes, sizes, colours and smell roaming, unleashed, around the vicinity.

'_Wow,'_ I thought to myself. _'No wonder I never see Kiba around. He practically lives in a whole other town!'_

My thoughts obviously distracted, it only occurred to me that we had arrived when Kiba elbowed me in the waist to sober up a little. I blinked rapidly and focused on what lay directly ahead, immediately disciplining my mind to go into professional-kunoichi mode.

Two large, threatening-looking Inuzuka guards stood by a locked door, staring me down like I was the doggie-treat to their equally monstrous-looking canines.

I stiffened, half-consciously, but berated myself against any ideas of taking flight. With great effort, I then offered them a bow – one that was not low enough to admit inferiority, yet not rigid and brief enough to suggest that I was by any means thinking weakly of them – just as I was taught by Tsunade back in training.

Without raising myself from my position, I saw that the guards then urged themselves to do the same, though theirs (I managed to note with some satisfaction) was a mite lower down than mine was. The difference was very little, but apparent, nonetheless.

Wrapping up this snappy piece of tradition, I turned to Kiba and beamed.

"Good job, Sakura," he said with a smile of his own. "Now that you've passed phase one, I wish you the best of luck with my mother."

My head snapped up, curling lips doing a one-eighty and suddenly dropping into a frown. "Wait, what? Are you saying that you aren't about to come with me?"

Kiba's laugh was nervous as he nudged me forward through the now-opened doorway. "Can't fight tradition, now, can we?" he told me with that roguish grin of his. The same one he'd later use in a hundred other life-changing turn of events that I'd in no way be pleased to hear about, I'd soon figure out. "Besides, you'll do fine! I'll be here to pick you up when you're done, k?"

"O-okay," I managed to stutter. "Is there anything important I should know about this whole ritual deal before stepping in there? I wouldn't exactly like to make a fool out of myself on my first day."

Kiba had his fingers to his chin, a look of mock concentration written across his face. "Hmm. Nope," he said very quickly. Then, with an afterthought, "Just don't look any of the elders in the eye, remember your prefixes, don't even bring up the subject on vegetarians, keep on stressing the fact that you're a _renown _medic-nin, if topic moves towards other clans, don't mention allegiance to anyone _but _Inuzuka, _aaaand_, if all else fails, just remember to tell them that you're a dog person, and that you hate cats."

"Wait, but I'm not really a—"

"BYE, SAKURA!"

BOOM.

The sound of the door slamming just as my ass barely made it through the room resounded heavily throughout empty passageway.

I then found myself bitterly, bitterly alone, no thanks for that future _hubby_ of mine.

Note to self: Strangle Kiba the moment I get out of here. Assuming I _do_ get out of here, I mean.

* * *

It took forever for me to navigate my way around the main Inuzuka quarters (what with no help and all), so when I finally made my entrance into one of the more lavish rooms of the manor, it was only predicted that the clan elders would react the way that they did – nose wrinkled up like they had sniffed something awful and brown eyes boring straight through me as if they had found the source of said awful smell. Everyone, meet Haruno Sakura. Pink hair (and, _yes_, it is natural, you boring old brunettes!), green eyes, and practically a walking, talking alien in your midst.

Not knowing what else to do, I then sucked in a deep breath (for what I imagined just might be my last) and swooped my head so low to the ground that I almost made contact with the extravagant floor covering.

"My apologies," I said, hoping that somehow those brief few words were enough to convey that I was a powerful jounin, top-notch medic-nin _and_ apprentice to the legendary Sannin Hokage all at the same time (God knows I have to do everything in my power in order to impress these guys. Even if it called for a little bit of a brag, I'm all up for it). "I... got lost on the way over. Your… estate is really big."

Insert nervous laughter from my part, and dead, horrible silence in which I took my time to fidget and look extremely awkward on theirs.

One of the elders, a feminine (?) male who seemed as if he had been through rough times and had the battle scars to vouch for it, raised an eyebrow at me. "Did Kiba-san not offer you his assistance, then?"

"Umm, gomen, sir, but Kiba-san told me that your tradition only allows that I go through this part of the ritual myself."

Now all the elders looked confused, some of them were even passing whispers along the table.

_What the heck was going on?_

"Well, although I suppose it is common for Kiba-san to play his games, I dare say it is unbecoming of a clan Alpha to play one at such pivotal a point as this," I managed to catch the words of another elder, this time an older man.

"You mean Kiba was lying to me?"

_Sneaky douche. When I get out of here, he's going to wish that strangling was all I'd do to him!_

No answer. Just more exchange of whispering I knew nothing about.

"Please, sit, Sakura-san," the man who had first acknowledged my arrival finally said, and, with a nod, a dog I did not realize was even there appeared from God-knows-where and dropped a cushion from between his clenched teeth, looking up at me as if expecting I'd take a seat on it or something.

'_Gross, dog drool,' _that rambunctious inner-self I thought had been lost throughout the ages decided to put her two-cent worth in.

But, of course, I ignored this. With an, "Arigatou" to both the elder and his dog, I proceeded to take my seat.

A nod from feminine-man was all the signal I got before he began with the process of interviewing me, "Haruno Sakura," he began. "As you are well-aware of, through methods that have been selected long ago by the Inuzuka clan as a means of deciding the best potential mates for their masters – "(he means humping, I deduced) "-Kiba Inuzuka-san's dog nin has chosen _you _to be his new wife, as well as member and equal throughout his future reign as Alpha leader of our clan."

The dark eyes of all the clan's elders were focusing all around me; unblinking, watching my every squirm, wince and tremor that shook my petite frame.

I nodded. "Yes, sir."

The feminine man nodded, too, before continuing—"Then you are also well aware that by being here in front of us today and succumbing to our positions as your superiors in this clan, you are therefore subjecting yourself to the rest of this ritual? This ritual in which your destiny will be from here on forth tied to that of our future Alpha male?"

'_Fuck, Sakura, did you not just hear what he said? Destiny TIED. That means you're Inuzuka property, damn it!' _inner-me berated hysterically in my head.

Again, I ignored this half of myself. Again, I nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Will you vow complete and utter allegiance to the fate of this clan? Would you make it an utmost priority to ensure the name, pride and status of this clan is upheld? Will you severe ties with all other families to entirely dedicate yourself to the Inuzuka name?"

_Haruno Sakura. Haruno Sakura. Haruno Sakura._

That name had always been a part of me. It meant a field of cherry blossoms, and that was always how I saw myself as I looked into my reflection in a mirror every day. It defined everything about me for the past twenty years, and, now, at the age of 21, am I really able to let it all go? To accept the surname Inuzuka instead? To practically be a whole different person? A person who no longer had only her friends and parents to divide love, care and attention between, but a _whole bloody clan_ full of people, PLUS husband! _Am I really ready for this?_

The answer was no. Of course not. For all my years, I have only loved one man for more than a friend, and that man definitely is not Inuzuka Kiba – a man I hardly consider a friend at all.

So why did I do it? Why did I swallow everything in and, without shutting eyes, without shedding tears, give yet another nod of the affirmative and repeat in a voice that seemed too loud for my own ears, those same, dead words, "Yes, sir."

In days to come, I will ponder this fact endlessly. In years to come, this thought might still cross my mind, and I'd wonder about it for a while, perhaps, before losing myself back to the daily rituals I had become so frequented with. For now, however, this thought came at me only as a small bee sting would. Short and painful, but long gone before I had the chance to think it through wisely enough.

With the stated words, the man drilling me for my eligibility then grinned, and, suddenly, all trace of threat was gone from his face. If I thought I sensed some remnant of femininity before, I was totally blown back by the full-force of a woman's soft, understanding brown eyes now.

"Well, then, welcome, Sakura, to the Inuzuka clan," he said. "You may call me mom."

It took several long seconds for this to finally sink in. And when it did—

...No-

…fucking-

…_way._

I just called my future mother-in-law a, 'sir' all this while, and confused her for a man!

One thought then ran through my mind, the ever-present, ever-sarcastic: _"Screwed."_

And that's when Inner-Sakura came along with her sing-song tone of voice to deliver that final, killing hit that had me wishing one of the main attributes of a shinobi was her ability to turn back time and take back what she said— _"Shoulda backed out while you had the chance, _**Inuzuka**._"

* * *

_

After the first bit of my, 'interview' with the clan elders, the rest of phase one seemed to move along swimmingly. And by that, please rest assured that swimmingly, for something relative to my whole marital ordeal, means that it went by without any crazy new hitches. Cue sighs of relief, because I most certainly have had enough heart-pounding moments of excitement for one day (and, yes, I am suggesting that the revelation that the man I had been talking to all throughout the interview was not a man, but a woman, and Kiba's mother, MY mother-in-law, no less, was heart-attack-worthy, _thankyouverymuch!)_

All I wanted to do now was to go home, pretend none of this ever happened, and wake up the next morning believing it didn't.

"Hey, Sakura_-kun_!" greeted Kiba as he jogged up to me.

_Then again,_ I can always settle for a good long brawl instead. And by brawl, I of course mean my setting a fist through Kiba's face and wiping that annoying little grin right off of him.

So, with a deep breath, I purposely allowed myself to walk slowly enough for my future husband to catch up to me, before gathering some chakra down to my fists (enough to hurt, not to murder, my motto!), and unloading it upon the unaware _jerk-who-left-me-alone-in-that-creepy-place!_

His back pressed right up against the tree, Kiba had no choice but to look straight at me. "Wh-what was that for!" he yelled, his cheeks flushing almost as red as the triangular markings on either side of his face.

"For leaving me alone back there, you asshole!" I spat, fingers just clamping _a little bit tighter_ around his throat. "And for not telling me exactly what I was getting into! In fact, for basically getting me into this!"

My mind occupied only by thoughts of red _bloody_ murder, I hardly comprehended that my victim was by no means an easy target. If anything, Inuzuka Kiba was as qualified a ninja as any other – more so than most, in fact. He was Jounin, possessed a very obvious bloodline limit, and was not one to be reckoned with – yet, in my fury, I completely forgot all about that and decided to piss him off anyway.

With a glare of his own, Kiba unlatched himself from my grip and crouched down into his typical defensive stance, mimicking my own resentment with a ferocious snarl. "Oh, come off it_, princess_," he shot back at me, making sure to properly drawl out his last word. "It's not as if I wanted myself in this situation anymore than you did. If you weren't so damn selfish all the time, you'd in fact know that _I'm _taking the bigger blow. I'm the one who should be pitied here: _I'm_ stuck with _you,_ after all."

That's it.

My lips ripped open screaming bloody murder, and, somewhere ahead of me, Kiba's did to. In moments a clash resonated throughout the area – a collision of flesh, fists, and egos – marking the day both Kiba and I released all pent up emotions. Each punch, kick, roar and bite drew something far more significant than blood and dark bruises that day, and we both knew it. Each punch was our questioning, _"Why _you_, of all people?"_ and each kick meant, _"How _dare_ you take away my freedom?"_

To cut things short, the fight was brutal. And by the time we were done, it left us both heaving deep, agonizing breaths on either side of the battle field; our eyes still narrowed into slits that shot venom at one another as we drank in the after-effects of combat.

For a long pause of time that could have been minutes, seconds, or even days, the battle for dominance raged between us. Both of us were individuals used to having things go our way, both fiery-tempered, both wild and free before the other one came along. And, now, here we were. Accidentally tied together in a destiny neither of us wanted. And what could we do but fight it. Fight it for all eternity; for it certainly felt like eternity.

Kiba's chocolate brown eyes spoke volumes to me that day – his frustration, anger, fear and hesitance – all that just by looking at me. I knew mine must have told him the same negative emotions.

And then it hit me.

All this fighting, this built-up fury, this feeling of being pulled in and used by the other party, this desperate need to fight for dominance – why bother?

He and I are in the same boat. My fears of devotion to a complete stranger were exactly mirrored in his eyes. My rage. My resistance. While Kiba may choose to continue fighting, I knew then that this was a lost cause. Kiba and I may no longer be free individuals, but we were in no means at the mercy of anyone other than ourselves. If anything, we were equals.

And so, my gaze still determinedly pressed towards his, I lifted myself off from the spot I had made impact against and, standing up, mentally urged Kiba to follow. Kiba's dark eyes analyzed my actions, and hesitantly, he did the same. I offered him a hand.

"Kiba-san," I said, addressing his name with a formal prefix for the very first time. "Forgive me."

A second.

A second was all it took for Kiba to figure out that I was being honest about my apology. He nodded stiffly, not bothering for an apology on his behalf. But I knew from my experience with male shinobi that his small smile and the offer of his hand was more than good enough. "Sakura-san," he acknowledged me as I met his hand for a shake. "Let's go. I'll walk you home."

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**Author's Note:** Well, what d'you think? I did my utmost best to lengthen if for you guys, so I hope you're pleased. Anyway, sorry this chapter was a bit of a drag. I meant for it to be a filler for the more juicy scenes coming up in the next chapter. Hehe, that's right! You can totally expect some topless Kiba and embarrassed Sakura in chapter five, so, please, review!


	5. Phase II, Sleeping Arrangements

**Author's Note:** LONGEST CHAPTER TO DATE with a whopping 3,441 words! Am I the pleased writer of this chapter, or what? Anyway, just like I told you in my previous entry, this story has been officially upgraded to an M rating! That's right, readers, be prepared for some steamy scenes, coz I'm finally venturing into Inuzuka Kiba's infamous wild side!

PS: Quick update, don't ya think? That's because I got it done the day after I sent Chapter 4 in! Yep. I decided not to wait any longer, just in case I run out of writing juice after a while. Needta get it all out there, which is why, like I've said, all it takes is to reach the review count I'm asking, coz the next chapter is usually on hand, just waiting to be sent. Aren't I evil? Bahahahaha.

Read and review!

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Dedicated to my beautiful, amazing, angelic reviewers (I won't skim on compliments today! I have a place to get to and I'm feeling happayyy), Mei fa-chan, Xx-Silent Ookami-xX, violentblossom, Sakura00017, Cehmacc14, Kcoolkat24, EELON, wynter89, mindlessdrabble and FLUFFAY. And of course to them anonymous readers - I know you guys are out there. ;)

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Chapter V: Phase II, Sleeping Arrangements

_(Kiba)_

The journey to Sakura's place took much longer than it usually would if I were to travel alone. Instead of zipping pass the unsuspecting town citizens like I normally tended to do, I found myself sharing a slow, comfortable pace under the night sky with Sakura. The walk was silent, as expected, but not uncomfortably so, which caught me by pleasant surprise.

Something about that uncalled-for battle we had just awhile ago back at my place managed to change things, and while it didn't entirely flip my perspective of my forced-marriage issue on its back, it certainly made me see my new fiancé in a better light. Now no longer did I feel attached to a complete stranger. It was as if a small burden had been lifted off my shoulders; that rock that held me from being my true self around Sakura was finally gone, and now there weren't any barriers left. So although I wasn't exactly ecstatic, I did somehow feel a remnant of my told self return to me.

Suddenly re-spirited, I took in the moment to roll my shoulders back and notch my head upwards to where a full moon was bearing light down upon us. Without a pause to consider how foolish I'd look, I then suddenly unleashed a long, heartfelt howl.

Sakura stopped dead in her tracks, looking at me as if I had lost my head back at the fight. "Kiba?" she tried gently.

I turned to her, baring my teeth in a full grin and laughing at her shocked expression. "Try it, its fun," I said to her, though, based on past experiences with women uncommon with Inuzuka rituals, I knew it was a lost cause. Even my teammates, Shino and Hinata, would spare me a shake of the head and pass my invitation for a good howl as if I was going bonkers.

But Sakura didn't react this way. In fact, quite the contrary, she, too, faced to look towards the moon and did exactly as I did – though, of course, her howl lacked that manly appeal and animalistic strength that mine always had.

This time, it was my turn to stare.

"You're not new to this, I see," I told her, still taken-aback by Sakura's uncharacteristic (or so I imagined) display.

Sakura doubled over, giggling. "Oh, God, you should see your face!" she said through her fit of laughter. "Like you've seen a ghost or something!"

Sakura's laugh was infectious – really honest and carefree – and not long after she began, I found myself joining in.

There the two of us were. Two very unlikely characters in the middle of a street full of bystanders, erupting into laughter so hard, it brought tears to our eyes (well, Sakura's, anyway. Being a man, I don't cry).

"Thank you," gasped Sakura when we were finally through; her green eyes were still twinkling with mirth as she regained her composure and looked me in the face. "I really needed that, Kiba."

I nodded, the humor of the situation still heavy in the air as I realized we had already arrived at our destination. "Anytime," I said with a thumbs-up sign for good measure (to which I received another round of giggles from Sakura's end). "When you get pass the intimidating good-looks part, I'm not such a bad guy, really."

Again, a giggle. "Intimidating good-looks, huh?" she said with a quirked brow and the hints of a smile still playing on her lips. "Well, the 'not such a bad guy' thing, I think I can understand, but the dashingly handsome part... hmm… not so convinced."

Leaning in with one of my most smothering lady-killer expressions, I went on, "Oh, trust me. When I pull out the tricks, all the ladies come running." I noticed that my leaning towards her had caused us to stand almost super-close – as in I-could-see-the-very-freckles-on-her-face-even-under-this-light sort of close. "Oh, and, by the way, I never said anything about being dashingly handsome," I added, the volume of my voice dropping to what I hoped was a seductive whisper by the end of the sentence, "You added that part in _yourself_."

The rise in temperature between us was unmistakable.

Having played the field of women for a while now, I knew well enough to detect that she realized this as well. She stiffened; green eyes wide and pink lips slightly agape. With my heightened sense of hearing, I could hear her heart pounding through her chest, very healthy and fast. Through my peripherals I watched her squirm on what I knew must have been the crossroads of decision – Sakura was torn between whether or not to act on our suggestive proximity.

Somewhere inside of me, I felt a light, triumphant emotion – that feeling I achieved when my ego gained a boost.

But the moment was long over before it even began.

Sakura had made her decision. She coughed politely and straightened up; her face a little flustered by what I assumed was a close call. "Goodnight, Kiba," she said, returning to her previous strained self once again.

I nodded.

"I'll see you soon," I replied, just as painstakingly professional. "…Goodnight. Sakura."

If I was expecting a kiss, I was mistaken. Of course, luckily for me, I wasn't expecting any kisses, so I hadn't been entirely wrong. Instead, we both accepted that another rigid nod would suffice – shinobi to fellow shinobi – and she continued to shut the door, leaving me with an emotion I didn't exactly know how to place.

_What just happened?_

* * *

I couldn't sleep that night.

My body ached so badly in what I recognized was hot, painful sex cravings. This feeling I knew well as I was often acquainted with it during the spring, when, like our canine partners, all unmated Inuzuka males would toss and turn in their beds, mouths foaming in lust. During those times, I would make it a point to simply jump any female who aroused me – and this was more often than not, the first pair of legs and female scent that walked past my bedroom. It was intense, this heat, but usually, I managed. A couple of shags with the random participating female here and a few one-night-stands there and it'll all be over in the morning, no hard feelings.

But this… _this_ was a different case.

This time, as my length hardened and the pressure of holding it in rattled my bones and exploded through to my senses, the only thing that came to mind was (and this is painful to admit) Sakura. Her petal-pink hair, supple, full lips, large, doe-like eyes, and her soft, fair skin. _Ohh, the skin;_ it hurt me all over just thinking about it. How smooth it would feel under my own rough fingers, how tender. And those legs. Those long legs with their voluptuous thighs; how they yearned for my touch – my caressing them and making them feel the way I felt.

Arrgh.

I couldn't take it anymore.

To keep myself from erupting on the spot, I dug my jaws through my pillow really, really hard. My fists balled up, nails drawing blood from my own raw flesh.

All through the night, I struggled to smother my howls, but couldn't help but to let out one or two out of sheer desperation. Tears were forming in my eyes and running down my cheeks. _It hurt… so… bad..._

"You should really bed her, you know," said Akamaru, ever the helpful companion, after fruitlessly trying to get some shut eye through my moans of agony. "If you keep this up any longer, it'll kill you. And, besides, I really need some sleep."

_Selfish bugger._

"It doesn't go like that," I hissed between clenched teeth and my swollen pillow.

"Why not?" asked Akamaru, looking up at me inquisitively. "She is your mate, isn't she? When I go through my heats, Jun is more than happy to oblige."

By, 'Jun' Akamaru was, no doubt, referring to his bitch; a brown and orange lap dog who was now pregnant with his puppies.

I glared. _Thanks for rubbing it in, pal,_ I wanted to say, but kept biting the pillow instead and decided on a different selection of words, "Humans aren't like dogs, especially not female humans," I told him politely. Well, as politely as one could possibly be while their mind was buzzing with impressively horny thoughts, I mean. "Sakura won't understand this at all. If anything, she'd think I was being rude, and that my asking her to fall over and kick her legs open-" The thought of that made me have to bite even harder, "-was disrespectful."

"Well, what're you going to do, then? Keep this up forever?"

With the back of my hand, I hurriedly wiped away the tears (of pain!) that leaked through the blasts of searing pain. "If I have to," I forced myself to wheeze out, hoping that conversation would distract me from the problem. "Besides, these things only last about a week or two, right?"

Akamaru's frown was sympathetic. "If you can last that long."

Like I said, isn't Akamaru just the _greatest_ pal?

* * *

The mornings-after my sessions with mini-me were usually met with bright happy smiles on my side of the bed. This is because, _usually, anyway,_ sometime in the night of my… let's call it _problems_… I'd have jumped out the window already, crept up to some willing member of the female race, and shared a delightful evening of moans and groans.

But, again, that morning was different.

"Good morning, Kiba," mum said slowly, as she eyed my pale face and bloodshot irises. "Well rested, I see?"

"Haha," I snarled at her, dropping myself onto one of the chairs and reaching for some bacon. "Go ahead, send me as many snarky comments as you want, I'm in the best of moods." I ripped the bacon apart with the teeth I had been sharpening against the pillow the night before. "What about you?" I shot my older sister, Hana, a glare. "No jibes for your baby brother?"

As an alternative for said jibe I had expected, both my mother and sister shared a delicate look.

"Kiba-kun, aren't you going to do something about this?" said Hana gently, waving a hand at my grumpy exterior.

"If by 'this' you're referring to my hard dick, you have no right to stick your head into the matter," I shot back, never being one for managing my words so early in the morning.

My mother intercepted just as Hana seemed about to snap back at me. "Kiba," she said, the look on her being enough to tell me that she was in no mood to toss a good joking banter around today. "This is serious. We heard you all through the night – the whole clan must have heard you. If you don't do something about this soon, you're really going to take a toll out of it."

"Well, don't you think I know that!" I practically yelled, getting to my feet and completely dropping all thoughts of a nice, uneventful breakfast with family. "It isn't as if I can force her to succumb to my… my _problem!_ And it's not as though I enjoy dealing with this! Just because _you_ and the rest of the clan lost a few minutes of beauty sleep out of my _screaming in agony_ doesn't mean I don't know how bad this is!"

I paused for effect, hoping my words would sink in like I planned they would.

"I'm out," I said at last, when I believed the pause to have done its business. "Don't expect me til late."

Leaving my mother and sister staring speechlessly in my wake, I walked out of the house and slammed the door loudly behind me.

No sooner than that did I find myself aimlessly wandering the streets, hands in pocket, grumbling a long string of curses under my breath, and so preoccupied with my own angry thoughts that I hadn't even realized where my had feet taken me to—

_Sakura's apartment._

I sighed at the irony of things.

Without allowing myself to have second thoughts, I then snapped my shoulders back and pressed her doorbell – twice, as was my signature ring.

"Coming!" came Sakura's usual reply, accompanied by the sound of crashing into things and familiar swear words, just like yesterday.

Despite everything, I found myself smirking.

"Yes?" said Sakura as she finally opened her door to greet me.

I coughed, hands deliberately reaching for the back of my neck for that invisible itch I was prone to having whenever things took a turn towards the awkward. "Umm," I started, smoothly, as always (note sarcasm). "I was just in the neighbourhood…"

Sakura's grin was blinding. "More ritual matters?" she questioned, inching herself out of the doorway. "Am I called for another interview or something?"

I shook my head, wishing otherwise. Another interview would be the perfect excuse for my being here. Unfortunately, though, I was flat out of actual excuses. All I had was the ugly truth – and truth was, I didn't really _have_ to be here. I just… maybe I _wanted_ to? "I thought we could talk," I admitted, at last. When Sakura's reaction to this was that of confusion, I added hurriedly, "You know, because we're gonna be tied together and stuff; I thought it'd be a good idea to at least know what I'm getting into."

'Smart move, Inuzuka,' I barely had time to sneak in the compliment to myself as Sakura nodded and made way for my entrance.

Her room was small, just as I remembered it. Small and compact, jammed full of things like medic scrolls and medic equipment, shurikens and kunai – things you'd typically find in the house of all shinobi. But there were also things that had me assuming were originally Sakura. Like the furniture, cozy yet practical. Mostly bright, loud colors like red, but matched smartly enough with mute tones such as beige and cream to soften the effect. Large, woolen rugs. A television that was not unused. A blanket or a couple of pillows thrown haphazardly around. Everything was all very personal.

My senses hiked.

I was now within the intimate territory that was Sakura's home. The place she ate, bathed, and slept in. There wasn't an inch of the apartment that didn't smell entirely like her, and as Sakura had her back turned on me, preparing some sort of drink or whatever, I couldn't help but to savor it all in – drink in the surroundings that Sakura would wake up to upon opening her eyes every morning, sniff in her warm, creamy scent.

All this was too much for me – just an ordinary man. It was by no means on purpose when my lips released an animalistic moan.

"Is something wrong?" asked Sakura from where she was making coffee from the kitchen area. "Kiba?"

"Mmm? Oh, nothing, Sakura," I couldn't help but enjoy the sight of everything – me in her living room, with her just a couple of steps away from me, sharing living space together, her making my drinks; it all seemed so well put together. "Do you mind if I take a seat?"

"Not at all," Sakura's voice was chipper that morning. Unlike me, she must have had some good sleep last night. The thought of this made me want to growl out in frustration. The idea of her sleeping in an empty bed, while I was on a whole other end of town tending to my swollen length was incredibly unbecoming. "I'll be there in a second."

That's when Sakura came to me, dressed in a saucy red nightgown that skimmed just above the lower half of her thigh and left little for the imagination. Her hair was disheveled, her green eyes hazy. "Oh, _Kiba-kun_, I hope I didn't keep you waiting," she almost purred, linking warm arms around my neck and leaning into my chest. Her breath was hot, practically on fire. With my canine sense of smell, I detected how wet she was for me. "Kiba-kun, please, _take me."_ There was no need to be told twice. I snaked my arms around Sakura's waist and—

"Here's your drink!"

-Reality Sakura arrived just before I could get away with my sexual fantasies.

I sighed, knowing that what my mother had said to me earlier was nothing but the truth. I really did need to do something about my… my _problem._ Not only was night rest becoming a complication, but hallucinations? There was no way that that was doing me any good.

So what am I going to do?

Bed her, like Akamaru so rightfully suggested?

Not in a bazillion years would Sakura be keen with that – not when she couldn't even bring herself round to giving me a kiss goodnight yesterday.

No.

Bedding Sakura took time and patience.

Sakura had to _like_ me, and, like I said, it took time.

_So what now?_ Certainly I can't go on like this. I at least needed to close the proximity between us. My living miles away from her place would only spell disaster in the long-run. If anything, we have to talk sleeping arrangements.

"Sleeping arrangements?" Sakura squeaked, when I brought this matter up.

We were both sitting side by side on Sakura's little sofa, blowing off the heat from our coffee mugs when I suggested this issue.

"Yes," I replied simply. "You're my fiancé now, we're going to have to sleep together sooner or later."

"S-sleep together?" she repeated, obviously still shocked I had even raised such an idea. "A-as in _sleep together-sleep together_ or just, you know, you and I sharing a bed but not…" Sakura's train of words trailed off, but I got the gist of it anyway.

"You and I sharing a bed sleeping together," I told her, gaining her look of utmost relief. Then, from behind my mug, "…unless, of course, you want to sleep together-sleep together, because I—"

"NO, no!" Sakura was quick to follow up. Her cheeks were now redder than Hinata's. "I- I'm sorry, but I'd rather not anytime soon," she added, almost guiltily. "I- I know we ought to someday, but… I don't think I'm quite…"

I raised a hand, signaling she stop right there. "Don't worry," I told her, understandingly. "I… I reckoned that'd be the case, anyway. No need to apologize for not being ready."

Sakura nodded, still blushing.

It sucked, in all honesty, the fact that she wasn't yet up for it. But, then again, it came as no surprise. Even before the knowledge that I was to get into this state with her, I could smell she oozed virgin from miles away – which, in a way, _is_ a surprise, considering Sakura is very pretty and must have had her fair share of admirers by now.

Then again, I guess one can only respect a woman who respects herself (cough).

I just had to wait.

"So," I finally mustered when the silence proved too much for me. "Your place or mine?"

* * *

At the end of the day, I found myself dumping stacks of necessities into an old duffel bag. Pants, t-shirts, underwear and other such articles of clothing were bundled in there somewhere as well. During this process of my packing up, Akamaru gave me a whine and asked me, for the ninth time, whether it was really necessary that I leave him.

"Yes, Akamaru, sorry," was my reply for the ninth time. "Don't worry, though. I'll be home soon. This heat thing, it only lasts for a couple weeks, remember?"

"Yeah," said Akamaru, "But your marriage thing, doesn't it last forever?"

I halted dead in the act of trying to shove in another jacket.

_He was right._

I can't believe I didn't notice it before.

While my moving into Sakura's place was initially due to my dreaded problem, deep down, due to some sick play of fate, this was, in fact, yet another phase in the ritual. Sakura and I were going to live together, just like real husband and wife do.

I looked down at my canine companion. "This isn't a game, huh, Akamaru?" I half whispered, the question itself lingering in the air as more of a statement to my own state of denial rather than an inquisition to my dog.

Akamaru shook his furry white head.

"Good luck," he barked, nuzzling me comfortingly.

I nodded, wondering how, in such a short time, I had gone from free man, to the man _arranging_ to live together in the first place.

"By Kami," I muttered. "I'm a changed person already."

* * *

**Author's Note:** Well? What say you? Personally, I think it was quite a feat for me. Not only did I double my entry this time around, but I also managed Kiba's perspective with more ease than I had before. I really hope I did his character justice. If you notice, I tried my best to make the characters act more natural, as, after their fight in chapter three, I figured it was high-time they got over their stranger-faces.

I really worked my ass off for this one, so, please please _please_, give me some constructive criticism. What you like, what you would like for me to work on, I'm all up for that.

Reviews make me happy! Let's reach the 50-count together! SHANNARO!


	6. Feelings

**Author's Note:** I'm so super sorry that I couldn't get this done any sooner. At first I was just really, really mentally drained, and after that, well, I just had a ton of events hogging my calendar. A thousand apologies! For your patience and wonderful reviews (I didn't expect nineteen of them!), I made this chapter super long.

Read and review! :)

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This chapter I dedicated to minniemousemom, Cehmacc14, Sakura00017, Kcoolkat24, Aijou829, LadyNorth76, Clowesia, EELON, AshenMarsha, Nature Girl27, Dior Crystal, violentblossom, KakashisDenimAngel, wynter89, AJlovesKakashi, Awsmness, Sir Greatness, angelsgurl12, and everybody else out there reading! Thank you for all your support!

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Chapter VI: Feelings

_(Sakura)_

It was awkward, to say the least, having to share living space with a man I hardly even knew.

At first, we both tried to act professional about it. _'Think normal thoughts,' _I'd often berate my Inner-self as she yelled and did circles around the inside of my head. _'It's just like another one of your missions. You're used to being the only kunoichi on the team, right? You don't have qualms spending the night with Naruto or Kakashi or Sai or Sasuke – Kiba shouldn't be any different. He's a ninja, you're a ninja, think of it that way.'_

But as the days drew on, this mental pep-talk of mine began to lose its appeal, as I often came across areas in my living with Kiba that sought to argue against professionalism, reminding me, time and again, that this was not just another mission and that Kiba was not just another member of the male species whom I could manage to share food with without having to share more than that—

Kiba was a man. A _very manly_ man. A _very manly _man who slept in my bed in only his boxers, was not ashamed to leave the bathroom door hanging open as he brushed his teeth in only my towel, and whose certain part of the male anatomy often drew my attention as I accidentally brushed against him in the middle of the night.

_Oh, yes._ At times like these, it was no surprise that I was immediately reminded of my situation.

And speaking of situations, did I tell you that Kiba had one incredibly… _embarrassing_ situation?

I began noticing it on the very first night of his stay. Both of us were beet red in the face as we lingered by the corner of my bed, unsure of whether or not we should get in it. Kiba was scratching the back of his head; a habit I had caught him doing every time we landed ourselves into a troublesome position.

"Umm, shouldn't we, er, get in now?" probed Kiba at last, not daring to look me in the eye.

My nod was more of an ugly little jerk of the head than anything else. "Sure," I rasped throatily in reply. "We, uh, we'll get in… together."

It was ridiculous, now that I think about it. We were both two fully grown shinobi who made it a point to take on life-risking missions every couple of months, yet there we were—reduced to a couple of jittering idiots who had a tough time just lying down next to each other.

'_He's just a guy, Sakura,'_ I'd tell myself. _'Just a boring, ordinary guy, no different than Naruto or something. A normal guy who is… just… so… hot.'_

This fact was not lost to me as I scooted as far away from Kiba as possible, doing my utmost best to think of anything_ other_ than the fact that just a couple of inches away from me, he was completely topless and that he had the most _amazing_ abs. Kiba, thankfully, remained still and silent amongst the darkness, making it easier for me to focus my attention on emptying my mind. And while falling asleep next to a man with incredible abs may have seemed impossible at first, the gentle hum of the night slowly caught on to me in the end, and, in a matter of moments, I found myself asleep.

So imagine my surprise when I awoke that night to the sound of a loud and very, dare I say, _promiscuous _moan.

My green eyes shot open, my brain automatically on high alert and switching to ninja-mode like it usually did when I was woken up during strange hours of the night. Snatching up the lone kunai by my bedside, I rolled over to Kiba's side, prepped for the worst, and saw…

_Kiba. _His dark eyes staring straight at me; a wild, fiery emotion I did not expect to see from him now penetrating my entire being.

I shivered, the intensity of his look too strong for comfort. "K-Kiba?" I tried, gently, but was quickly shushed back into silence by the man I had just acknowledged.

Even in the darkness, I could see his usually tanned face had paled considerably and that his body strained, almost unbearably so.

"S-Sakura..." he muttered, long and carefully, as if he was afraid to do anything he'd regret later on. "I-I'm s-sorry…"

I had barely comprehended his words when, suddenly, I found myself wrapped in his embrace, that certain part I had mentioned earlier on (the part of his male anatomy? Yeah, lower down, that one) very hard pressed against me. I gasped, immediately at a loss for words, unsure of whether or not I should allow this or do what every instinct in my body was telling me to do and kick the guy in the groin for having his hands all over me.

Strangely enough, though, I chose the former of the two and remained still within Kiba's arms.

Like I said earlier before – it was awkward.

I was then closer to him than I have ever been to any guy, _ever_, period and exclamation mark, just to be perfectly clear. He had drawn me so near to him, in fact, that the side of my head was being squashed to his chest, and I could hear his very heartbeat; a strong, rapid drum that seemed to quicken as I drew in a sharp breath. His eyelids fluttered shut as he dug his nose through the hair on top of my head and inhaled, long and deep. His hold around my waist did not loosen as he crushed his fingers through my flesh so hard, I wouldn't be entirely shocked to see bruise marks on it in the morning. All the while, I lay frozen. Completely rigid in his arms.

My mind was screaming for answers, Inner-Sakura was bouncing off the walls, yet I remained that way – we both did. We lay like that for a long time; plastered against each other, not a peep out of either of us, and not daring to move an inch.

Finally, the moment was over.

After what seemed like infinity of soaking in Kiba's strong scent, I noticed the grip pulling me into him had finally loosened.

At last, with a gap between us, I looked up into Kiba's eyes and asked him tentatively the question that had been dancing in my head all along, "Kiba," I began, hoping the mass of limbs that was Kiba would not feign sleep in attempt to ignore me. "What's—"

But, again I was cut short. "Its part of the ritual," he interrupted me to say, his voice a little hoarse from all that time keeping quiet and still. "I – you're not gonna like this, but it's just something we Inuzuka men go through, usually during the summer, but never this bad. I've been through this a hundred times before, but, like I said, never this bad, and now that you're to be my new mate and everything, it just makes situations more complicated, I guess."

Even within the blanket of darkness, I could see that Kiba was reaching for the back of his neck, shifting around uncomfortably.

"I… see," I managed to croak. "And that's why you proposed living together so soon?"

"Yeah," replied Kiba, looking anywhere but at me. "I know this is inconvenient, but for both our sakes, I'm gonna have to be close to you for a while. At least until we're mated, I won't have much control over myself, so the best I could do was to… well, _just now."_ Kiba waved a hand through the air above himself, as if signifying his actions just a while ago. "I'm really sorry."

I shrugged from my place on the bed. "Don't be," I said confidently. "If anything, I should be the one feeling sorry – I'm putting you through this, after all." Then I got an idea and went on, a little less sure of myself than before, "I-if it helps, you can use me again when you have to anytime."

Despite the darkness, I saw Kiba's eyes bug out of their sockets.

My throat went dry, realizing what I had said. "No!" I tried correcting myself quickly. "I-I mean, not—not like—like actual sleeping together like that or—or sex or anything!"

_Oh, Kami, I was making it worse._

My face burned scarlet, and I was thankful now more than anything that it was close to 3am and the curtains were drawn and that my shame wasn't so obvious.

From Kiba's side of the bed, I heard a soft chuckle. "Don't worry, Sakura-chan," he told me gently. The fact that he had attached the '-chan' prefix to my name was not lost to me, and as he said it, I could only feel myself grow redder, a trickle of delight shot up from my toes. "I know what you're talking about."

He smiled then – not grinned, not smirked, but an actual, warm, genuine smile that seemed to linger in the air like a contented presence.

I smiled back, positively elated.

"Goodnight, Sakura-chan," he said, lips still upturned and reverberating warmth all around me.

"Goodnight… _Kiba-kun."_

And that's how it was.

That's how Kiba and I passed our first night together with flying colors, and how a ritual was formed since then.

Sometime after midnight, I'd hear Kiba's soft moans and the sound of him tossing about, and I'd inch myself closer, saving him the pressure of having to come up to me himself and breathe an apology out through the crook of my neck as I feigned sleep and oozed at his contact. After a while, everything would be good again, and I'd dread it when the time came for him to unlatch his arms from around me and move back away.

Which brings me to our next situation – _my_ situation.

Not more than a week had passed since Kiba's unexpected 'proposal' to me, and already I felt like putty in his hands.

My heart would beat loud and fast whenever I chanced upon catching him bent over to check out the contents of my refrigerator, or napping on my sofa, or toweling through his wet hair. And whenever he'd go out (which was most of the day), I'd find myself with nothing more useful to do than to count the seconds until he arrive back, which would be when I'd revert to a giddy, shuffling fruitcake of a girl.

_By God, I was turning back to my twelve year old self!_

This was becoming an absolute disaster.

For years I had worked to build a wall around myself, to plant a fortress of hard professionalism that would help keep me from humiliating myself around potential spouses, and becoming a total nuisance of a kunoichi who knew nothing more than to be an annoyance to the rest of her team.

And, yes, that word still hurt, by the way.

When Sasuke left, I had sought for apprenticeship under Tsunade. I gained power and strength, and, with time, respect. I became one of the great medic-nins of all time, and I've been told by plenty of parties that if I kept it up, I may just be able to surpass my master, and possibly become the most powerful kunoichi Konoha has ever seen.

The thought of this excited me.

I was only 21 and I had such potential. My initial plan was to continue moving on from there, until my dream would be realized and there'd come a day when I could finally tell my _precious Sasuke-kun_ that I was long over him, and that, most importantly, he was wrong about me.

But, of course, _plot twist._

Kiba just had to come along, announce that I was to be his new wife, move in with me and make me fall head over heels for him just like I did for Sasuke all those years ago.

I knew if I allowed this to go on any longer, I'd no doubt lose the strong kunoichi Sakura that Konoha was so proud of. _I just knew it._

It was then that I decided I had to get away.

"WHAT?" yelled Kiba, rising from his seat in front of the television when I had finally mustered the guts to tell him this. "You're… you can't be serious, right?"

I shook my head, looking him straight on. "I'm applying myself for a mission tomorrow," I told him briskly, biting down on the_ '_Kiba-kun'that threatened to slip out of me. "It'll be a couple of weeks, but I'm sure neither of us will mind. You'll have that freedom you wanted, after all, right?"

My feelings were confusing as I waited his response. In all honesty, I didn't exactly know what I wanted to hear – did I hope he'd let me go ahead with my plans, or was I more keen on the idea of him wanting to cage me up here, where I'd remain by his side, and we'd stay together?

But I mentally slapped myself at the latter thought. _'Get your head in the game, Sakura,' _I told myself, shutting up the Inner-Sakura who was bawling over the idea of leaving Kiba behind and living in the forest for a couple of months. _'Do you really want to be useless again? Annoying for all your life?'_

While all this ran through my head, in reality I saw Kiba's lips draw into a thin, unreadable line; his expression so incredibly impassive that I knew not what to think of it. "And what about the ritual?" he asked me, his dark eyes cold and meeting mine without mercy. "You're just going to drop everything behind and pretend as if you don't have a history attached to me now? Pretend as if nothing's going to happen? As if nothing did happen?"

"What are you implying—"

But Kiba had interrupted me. He had a knack of doing that lately. "Whatever," he spat, his back now turned to me as he snatched the jacket he had thrown over the coffee table earlier before and slung it over his shoulder. "Do whatever you want. It's not as if I wanted us to get together or something in the first place."

"But, Kiba, I—"

But no sooner than those words had left my lips did I realize I was then speaking to mid-air. In a burst of lightning speed, Kiba had kicked up his heels and sprinted off through the night, leaving me alone in the apartment I had once thought too small and was now so large and empty without him.

I stood in my place for a long time.

If I was any less the kunoichi I was today – _if I was the Sakura I was back then _– I knew I'd have tears sliding down my cheeks by now.

But tonight, I had decided against that. Tonight I had decided to be a real, strong kunoichi – even if that meant kicking Kiba away from me to do so.

I wasn't about to let a couple of tears ruin all that.

* * *

The next morning, I was up bright and early, bowing to Tsunade as I told her I'd take on any available mission as soon as possible.

"Good, Sakura, I expect no less from my favourite apprentice," stated Tsunade proudly. "The mission is relatively simple. A couple of rogue ninja – we haven't been able to detect who – have been spotted around the borders of the Leaf Country and causing havoc around the nearby towns. I don't expect the ninja to be very powerful, but they certainly managed to slaughter a couple of heads."

My eyes widened. _Slaughtering a couple of heads was the work of ordinary ninja?_ Tsunade really needed to fix her definition of 'easy.'

"Don't worry," said Tsunade, taking in my surprise. "They only killed civilians, so I don't think they'll be that much of a hassle for a Jounin such as yourself."

"Very well, Tsunade-sama," I replied, thinking that it'll be all right if I went with her instinct at least this once. "I'll take the job then. When do I leave?"

"Just as soon as your mission teammates arrive," said Tsunade, acknowledging the knock on her door. "Aah. That must be them now. Come in."

The doors burst open, revealing an excited Naruto, decked head-to-toe in his typical orange attire and looking happy to see me. "Hi, Sakura-chan!" he greeted me loudly, before realizing he had forgotten his reason for being there and greeting Tsunade as well. "Tsunade-sama, Neji told me to tell you he won't be joining us today."

"Oh?" Tsunade's brows were raised in disbelief. "That's unlike him to turn down a mission that I specifically called him in to do. Not many else have the tracking ability that the Hyuuga's have, and Hinata had already been sent to another mission a while ago."

"Yeah, and that's why you should've let me finished!" said Naruto impatiently. "Luckily for us, Kiba was around and he actually asked me for this mission himself! Aren't you glad I found a substitute for you so easily, huh, Tsunade- baa-chan?"

My head snapped up, swiveling to the door once again, where a grumpy Kiba was leaned against, his hands stuffed in his pockets and his eyes glaring steadily at the ground.

I felt my breath hitch. _So he… does care._

"Very well, then," said Tsunade simply, oblivious to my inner turmoil and the sudden swell of tension that entered the room with Kiba's presence being right across mine. "Go home and pack, then. You should leave after lunch."

We nodded before bowing once again and leaving the room.

Outside, everything was sunny, and in true Naruto-fashion, the ignorant boy-wonder trampled in between Kiba and I and cut off what was going to be another argument. For the first time in my life, I was glad Naruto felt no sense to the waves of electricity that Kiba was shooting at me, because if he did, we'd surely have to come up with some clever explanation. No doubt my best friend would not be fond of the idea of my already having a fiancé and not telling him anything about it.

"Well, guys, looks like we'll be teammates for this mission!" Naruto chirped, draping an arm around both our shoulders. "This'll be fun, eh, Sakura-chan? Just like old times, huh?"

I managed a shaky smile. Naruto has no idea how different this is going to be. Our old missions together did not include Inuzuka Kiba having to share a bed with me and us cuddling up together every night.

"Right, right, Naruto," I said, instead. "Just you and I. And… Kiba-kun." Shit, the '-kun' part was for all intended purposes completely unintentional. I bit my lip and hoped to God Naruto wouldn't notice. He didn't, thankfully, and was currently blabbering on about packing some extra ramen bowls in case we get hungry. The same, however, didn't go for my very acute fiancé, who was quick to realize my affectionate prefix for him and was now sending a smirk in my direction.

'He's going to know sooner or later, you know,' he seemed to tell me, despite not moving his lips or actually saying anything. 'Better now than never.'

I shot him a look of my own, giving him the message that, 'No, you idiot, not now! A mission isn't the right time for that!'

Kiba, shrugged, satisfied for the time being; though, knowing him, I was sure there'd be a talk when we got home later on. "Fine," he said aloud, cutting our strange telepathic conversation. "Naruto," he had turned to my blond friend now. "As much as we'd love to hear your story about… whatever it is… we have weeks of mission to go to listen to the end of it, so, if you don't mind, Sakura and I are going to pack up now."

Naruto, bless him, was still unaware that anything had changed. "Sure," he said, just as happily as before. "I'll see you guys after lunch then!"

He waved at us, and we waved back, making our leave.

"Wait!" Naruto then suddenly shouted out, stopping us in our tracks and forcing us to turn our heads to his direction. "Isn't your house the other way, Kiba?"

_This is going to be a long mission._

* * *

**Author's Note:** Okay, you know what? I wasn't expecting Sakura to up and leave for a mission all of a sudden. My initial plan was to keep working on their living together at Sakura's place but, well, it just didn't turn out I guess. This chapter just seemed to type itself, so, not wanting to delay you from a chapter any longer, I forced myself to go with it.

I hope it isn't too boring and below expectations! I promise the romance will heat up soon but for now, I just don't think it is realistic for them to go sucking each other's mouths off or something, though I am working up to that.

At the time being, notice how Sakura's feelings have blossomed into a crush. I hope I got her character penned down right. Sakura has a tendency to have mixed-feelings, especially when it comes to romance.

What say you?

Please review! :)

Oh, PS, sorry if this chapter is so full of spelling errors/grammatical mistakes/whatever else related. I started on it around 3am Malaysian time and right now it's 6am. I did my best to spell check and re-read and stuff, but it's possible I might've missed a couple of things. So sorry once again.


	7. Mixed Priorities

**Author's Note:** Super, super sorry that this update had to take me this long! My college registration stuff has been keeping me wrapped up tight, and what with Christmas and New Year's and everything, I've been pretty much the busy bee (which reminds me, happy belated Christmas and New Year's wishes!). I hope you forgive me! I lengthened this chapter to 4k (plus!) words to make up for it; though, sadly, I don't consider it my best chapter so far. I'm kind of struggling, see, to get the plot done right; this led to a couple of dozen writes and rewrites, so if you think I was slacking off, I wasn't. I just wanted it to be good. I tend to be a perfectionist nowadays. Gahh.

Forget me. Read and review! :)

Words: 4, 735.

* * *

Thank you so much to LadyNorth76, Cehmacc14, RedandBlackTears, Sakura00017, 1GaaSaku vs 1SasuSaku, minniemousemom, AJlovesKakashi, Eilistraee, me, AshenMarsha, PleaseSirAccept, Xx-Silent Ookami-Xx, Nature Girl27, sKyLaR KnIgHt, violentblossom, Poptart-Freak, Dior Crystal, Kittens Hellfire, nightDREAMERms, and Victoblerone for all your excellent reviews to my chapter. Also to the anonymous readers who never seem to review me. You guys make my day. You guys also make me feel like the biggest jerk in the world when you reach my count and I can't come up with the next chapter. Thank you loads!

* * *

Chapter VII: Mixed Priorities

_(Kiba)_

Before leaving to meet up with Naruto, there were a couple of things Sakura and I had to first settle.

Not surprisingly, the foremost agenda on the list was, of course, the inevitable argument that came with Sakura wanting to leave for this mission and my wanting to follow. We did this at Sakura's apartment while angrily jamming clothes into our rucksacks and shuriken into our pouches.

"Kiba, what are you thinking?" Sakura opened the argument with a ferocious snarl in my direction. "You were blowing up about us getting together at one point, then you exploded at me when I gave you room for freedom, and now that I'm taking up a mission, Hyuuga Neji, my assigned partner and the same guy who _never skips out on his duty_ is suddenly calling in sick – _coincidentally _for you to step in? What the heck is going on?"

"God, do you ever shut up!" I roared back, positively erupting on the spot. "You asked for a mission, you're getting a mission. Be glad I'm even allowing you to go to begin with!"

"YOU allowing ME to go?" was Sakura's volatile retort. "HAH! And since when did I need your permission to do anything? Last I remember it, I _stated _wanting to leave, I didn't _ask _you for anything."

"Well, last I remember it; you subjected yourself to be my wife!"

"Last I remember it, I didn't have a choice!"

Things went on like this for quite some time; with us throwing snarky rebuttals to each snarky comment the other party shot back and forth. Luckily, though, this particular argument managed to end quickly enough. After our typical pause of silence in which we allowed ourselves to cool down a little, we were able to make up for it through a change of topic (we still weren't in the habit of apologizing, as you can see) without noticeable injury (unless you consider the bruise on the back of my head from where Sakura had thrown a frying pan at it a noticeable injury, of course).

After that, it was off to duty number two – my place, where we picked up a joyous Akamaru.

"I'm glad to see you're back on your feet again," said the giant dog upon meeting. "And I couldn't agree with you more, by the way; partnering up for a mission is the perfect way to settle differences and really see your mate for who she is."

I spared a sideward glance at Sakura while she was busy entertaining the excited puppies gathering around her feet to notice me. "Yeah, sure, as if I'd like to see her with her guard down," I mumbled unenthusiastically, not wanting to imagine a Sakura comfortable enough around me to act the way she did with her two unfortunate teammates, Naruto and Sai. I winced at the image of being pummeled to the ground. "Really, she's bad enough as it is, I don't think I'm ready to see more."

Akamaru gave me curious smile; the kind only dogs managed to pull off. "You never know," he said, before bouncing off to greet Sakura with friendly lick. "Welcome young mistress!" he gushed, wagging his tail in delight.

Sakura laughed nervously; obviously still afraid of my enormous dog and not comprehending the meaning behind his cheerful bark. To people outside the Inuzuka clan, anything a dog said would only come through as a, 'woof, woof!' or something. Only when they were given the mark of acceptance would they understand the true nature of our canine counterparts.

"Hi, Akamaru," said Sakura, grinning lop-sidedly as she ruffled through his fur with her hands. "Tell me you're not going to hump me again, are you?"

"Not when you all ready have Master!" replied Akamaru cheekily. "Though I know you guys aren't getting at it yet, I'm sure he'll do you soon enough. So don't worry; you wouldn't need me for that sort of stuff anymore!"

_Okay, time to step in._

"Not to intrude in on your conversation or anything," I interrupted with a loud cough; my signal for Akamaru to _stop embarrassing me, damn it_. "But Akamaru isn't about to do that to you anytime soon. Akamaru has his own mate tend to. And Inuzukas mate for life."

"So I was told," Sakura mumbled, sort of frowning. Getting up from her kneeling position beside my dog, she then turned to meet my gaze with her usual serious expression. "Come on. Now that we're done here, I think we ought to go."

I was about to agree with her on this until a voice called out to me, sounding awfully like my mother. "Kiba!" it hollered, making me swivel my head over to where my mum was jogging up to me. "You didn't think you'd leave without saying your goodbyes, hmm?"

I furrowed my eyes, unable to hide my confusion. It was one thing to see my mother approach me outside of training, but it was a whole other for her to demand I meet her before a mission. "Mother," I said, as, beside me, Sakura looked flustered and was quickly bowing over. "Umm… I didn't know seeing you before I go would be so necessary." Damn right I didn't – my mother never made a fuss about stuff like this; she hated goodbyes. No doubt something very suspicious was going on.

But mother only smiled, ensuring me that nothing was amiss. "Don't worry, Kiba, I won't take long," she said, grasping me by the arm and carefully moving me away to a corner. "You don't mind do you, Sakura-san? I'll just borrow him from you for a second."

"Oh, no, not at all," said Sakura with the brightest of fake smiles one would ever see. "Have him for as long as you like."

"Thank you," replied my mother, and it was at that point that my suspicions were confirmed: something definitely off was happening. Mum never thanked anyone younger than she was if she could help herself. "As you wait, feel free to have a chat with Kiba's sister, Hana. She's really interested to get to know you a bit better before you go. You'll find her somewhere by the nursery. Just head straight and you'll come across it."

Again, Sakura flashed my mother another one of her (what I shall now label) award winning _mother-in-law_-smiles. "Of course!" she chirped, swooping down for another graceful bow and obediently leaving us for my sister.

Only when she was well out of earshot did my mother's expression harden at me. "Kiba, please listen to what I say very carefully," she told me, looking grave. "What I am about to say to you now is of utmost importance, so I'm asking you, as your parent and leader of this clan, not to turn your back on me."

I gave her one of my careless shrugs. "I'm all ears."

"Kiba," she started. "You have to mate with Sakura."

My head snapped up. _"What?" _I cried, retaliating in the way I usually did when I was met with shocking news. "Oh, don't start on this with me again. I've told you before, she would never—"

"Kiba-san, listen!"

If I was shocked by the information before, it could never compare to what I felt in that instant. My mother had addressed me with the '-san' suffix attached to my name; possibly the closest she would ever get to admitting my Alpha ability over her.

"Kiba," she went over once again, this time after a deep intake of breath, knowing that she had finally gotten my full, undivided attention. "If you don't mate with Sakura soon, your instinctual side will take over, and God only knows what havoc can be wrecked when an Inuzuka has no control over himself. Trust me; it is imperative that you mate here while you're still in the right of mind or, worst possible case scenario, Sakura might die – and to your hands."

For a while there, my throat seemed to constrict upon itself and my whole body went completely numb. All breath and thought and even my senses were lost to me then. All I heard was mother's words, ringing loudly in my ear, and the image that flashed through my mind and left a lasting scar down it was a gruesome one – I pictured Sakura, limp and lifeless, in my blood-soaked hands.

My voice shook as I recovered myself to speak, "H-how long do I have?"

"A couple of days," replied my mother. "A week, maybe. But you can't risk it; for both your sakes."

Seeing how my face had grown pale and my eyes had widened in horror, my mum allowed herself to soften her features and reached for my hand to give it a little reassuring squeeze. "Don't worry, though," she added, as if it would take back the repulsion ofwhat she had previously said to me. "The Inuzuka blood is strong in your veins – you're our future leader. I have full confidence in you."

_Yeah, right, mother._ Full confidence! Like that'd make a difference when I choose to either, A: demand Sakura the right to stick my penis right into her under the primary objective of her safety and risk sounding like a downright pervert, making her hate me forever, or, B: save Sakura the pressure of losing her virginity to me by opting NOT to stick my penis into her and ripping her to pieces instead. I feel _so _much better.

Instead of saying all of the above, however, I could will myself to only respond through very simple movements – a.k.a. a nod of the head.

"Excellent!" said my mother, satisfied with my answer. "Now, go. I shouldn't keep you away from your fiancé any longer. Good luck on your mission – both of them."

She winked and I shuddered, slouching away with the same terrified expression of a man meeting his doom still maintained upon my face. It was with this expression, also, that I met up with Sakura, who had waved her goodbyes to Hana and didn't look any better off than I did at that point. She was frowning and a little jumpy when she spotted me.

"Let's go," she told me quickly. "Pronto."

* * *

We joined up with Naruto outside Ichiraku's after lunch as promised. After our second greeting for the day, were finally off on our journey.

My stomach did somersaults and threatened to release its contents all over the place as I heaved my bags over my shoulders and focused on anything but what my mother had said—

_Mate Sakura. Mate Sakura. Mate Sakura._

It was impossible. The thought ran through my mind like a broken record; unending and relentless about it. Not that it was a bad thought or anything; Sakura was a fine lady and I would, admittedly, love to do her in bed if given the chance – even if I wasn't under this stupid ritual – but taking her when she was obviously not up for it? That scared the hell out of me.

Sakura was_ Sakura._

We had only known each other for a while now but I had already learned to put up my boundaries around her. I respected her somehow. She and I were professionals equal in the arts of the ninja, she and I were equals in this predicament, and she and I had grown a – somewhat unorthodox – understanding of one another. And for now, I'd like to keep it that way.

For now, the only thing I knew she saw in me was a friend; or maybe a little more than a friend, judging by the way she blushed and snuck peeks at me when she thought I wasn't looking. But whatever the case, crush or no crush, she was far from ready for anything sexual.

I knew my women. And I knew Sakura; she was the type who wanted love before marriage. Love before sex, even. She was the type who believed in a one and only. And I was definitely not a one and only. Even from a guy's point of view, I could see where I went wrong, and how most women would deem me unsuitable for anything long-term related.

_So what to do? What to do?_

"Sounds simple enough if you ask me," said Akamaru when I had voiced my thoughts out to him between breaths and jumping through the trees to cover our pre-estimated distance before nightfall. "If she would only allow herself to mate with a guy she loves, all you have to do is make her fall in love with you."

I almost tripped over from the stark reality of his words. "Akamaru, that's both brilliant and ridiculous!" I sputtered, regaining myself from the almost-fall.

Akamaru grinned. "Sure it is! Brilliant, I mean," he replied confidently. "But the ridiculous part is still lost to me. Explain?"

I shook my head, clearing it from creeping fears and the leaves that clung to my hair. "Brilliant because it's obvious. Ridiculous because it would never work. She told me during our first meeting. She likes guys like Sasuke, and I'm more of a _Naruto."_

Despite the days that passed by since she last said it, the words still managed to sting. In seconds, I could imagine the Uchiha traitor replacing myself with his image next to Sakura. She was beaming instead of holding back around him – something she rarely did with me by her side. I growled out. _What the hell did she see in that bastard, anyway?_

_Everything_, the honesty in my head just had to pipe up. _He's obviously handsome and a genius and calm and all the girls would go crazy about him. She wouldn't think twice about giving herself up to _him_ if he was in my situation, no doubt. After all, I'm just a—_

"Naruto!" barked Akamaru suddenly.

I rolled my eyes. _Yeah, I'm just a Naruto._ "Thanks pal," I snipped sarcastically. "Wanna point out how much more I fail as human being? 'Coz I'm all up for being thoroughly put down tonight. Besides, the job is halfway done for you, anyway."

"No," said Akamaru slowly. "I mean, Naruto. You should ask Naruto. He has been her teammate since they were both Genin, hasn't he? He's bound to know Sakura way more than anybody else does. He'll know how to make her fall in love with you for sure!"

I brightened up, new hope blossoming in the pit of my chest. "Akamaru, that's-"

"Brilliant, I know," said Akamaru smugly, allowing me and my newfound optimism to catch up with the blond and leave him alone behind. "Thank me later when you get kids. I wouldn't mind one getting named after me, if you know what I mean."

Turning backwards to face him, I gave Akamaru a wide, toothy grin. "Wouldn't dream about it, buddy. There's only one Akamaru in this world for me."

I wanted to add that, _besides, I wouldn't want any more marital problems that come with additional Akamarus. It was difficult enough to be stuck with _one_ of Akamaru's sex victims, after all._ But, instead, I remained quiet and kept on grinning.

Finally! Some progress.

It was on at last: Operation Get Sakura to Fall in Love with Me So That I Can Sleep with Her and In Turn Save Her from an Untimely Death is now in order.

Step I: Cozy up to the best friend; a.k.a. Uzumaki Naruto.

* * *

We had been flitting through the trees for hours, covering a decent amount of miles in our wake, when Naruto finally stopped and suggested we start up camp for the night. "We've gotta save our energy for tomorrow!" was his excuse this time around, though I could tell by the way he had immediately popped open his first can of ramen that 'energy-saving' was the last thing on his mind.

At the idea of setting up camp, Sakura and I shared a brief look. I could tell from her furrowed brows that we were in that strange habit of reflecting each other's thoughts again. No doubt she was just as worried as I was about our current 'sleeping ritual.'

"What're we going to do?" she cornered me to ask, glancing over her shoulder every once in a while to ensure Naruto was distracted by his meal and well out of earshot. "We can't sleep together with Naruto around. He doesn't know anything about us."

I shrugged; sparing a peek at the blonde nincompoop as he eagerly ripped apart a bag of chips to go with his early dinner. "There's nothing we can do," I told her simply. "I'll just have to stay up tonight, I guess."

Despite my nonchalant exterior, I was rubbing my hands together excitedly on the inside. This was my chance. With Sakura gone, step one of my plan might just come into fruition.

So that night, after Sakura had parted ways with us and made for her own camp, I was left alone in a tent with Naruto, whose blue eyes were wide open and whose large mouth didn't seem to be taking a break anytime soon.

_Oh, God,_ I could only think to myself. _Don't tell me he's one of those dorks who make camp-out missions like some sort of boy slumber party. There is no way I'm going to get anything done if he's the only one talking._

And right on cue, Naruto was off – telling me all about the times he and Sakura and his old teammates would go out on the coolest, most mind-blowing adventures that mine would never compare with, and how he missed hanging out with them, and how Tsunade often kept them on separate missions, and how he wanted to be Hokage, and blah blah blah. Everything else was so meaningless; I didn't even bother to compute it to mind. Clearly, a 21-year-old Naruto was no improvement to the 12-year-old one.

But just as I was about to give up on my attempt to lure him into conversing about anything Sakura-related, Naruto somehow managed to get this part of the job done by himself and had cracked open a subject that had the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end and my ears perk up in interest—

"—and I don't think Sakura-chan ever got over Sasuke."

Whatever he had been saying before arriving to this sentence was lost to me, but the names, 'Sakura' and 'Sasuke' linked together in one breath certainly caught my attention.

"W-what d'you mean?" I found myself then asking tentatively.

Naruto shrugged, his blue eyes now taking on a glassy hue as he seemed to be lost in thought. For a second there, I definitely saw a shadow of maturity line Naruto's face. The shadow stayed, accenting what rough experiences he had throughout his young life as he continued on the delicate topic that was Sakura and her childhood obsession, Uchiha Sasuke. "Sakura piled herself with as much work as she could handle when that teme left," he said, staring blankly downwards. "She pretty much drowned herself in it. And when she heard about how he was planning to destroy Konoha… well, she just lost it."

I imagined her fiery temper. "You mean she got all angry or something?"

Naruto shook his head, erasing my mental imagery of a lung-screaming Sakura. "No, I mean, she seemed to lose herself," he said, instead. "She's… she's not the same Sakura-chan, y'know? She's harder now – colder. She's up to her neck in work and training, and she avoids the rest of us humans like we're the plague or something."

I thought back to yesterday night, when Sakura suddenly announced her leaving for a mission, shattering the cozy little routine we had up back at the apartment, and all those times she seemed about to warm up to me before hardening herself up again and stepping back.

All of a sudden, things started to make sense.

A pang of… _something_ I wasn't quite sure of… began to form in my chest, and almost instantaneously, every instinct in my body screamed for Sakura's presence. I found myself wanting to be next to her again, my arms wrapped around her like an outer-shell, protecting her from the dangers of the outside world, and comforting her from the nightmares inside. Who knew that Sakura was so filled with sadness? That that crazy hot-tempered woman on the other side of this clearing was bearing such heart-ache?

It was in that instant that I made a resolution to myself – that as long as Haruno Sakura was under my care I would not allow her to live so unhappily. I would make it my personal quest to change her back to the Sakura she once used to be, whoever that was.

My mind set, I turned over in my sleeping bag to where I was no longer facing Naruto and bid a hasty goodnight.

Only when I was sure that Naruto had dozed off did I kick off the blankets, mutter for Akamaru to keep watch for me and creep into Sakura's tent, hissing at her make room for me.

"Mmm, Kiba-kun?" she mumbled, rolling over and looking up at me with sleepy eyes. "Are you okay? Do you need me to-?"

I shushed her still and slid in next to her before allowing her the chance to get up.

In the darkness, I could see that she was a little shocked; though she smartly chose not to comment on my actions as she did as told and made space for me.

She remained quiet as I snaked my arms around her waist, pulling her close and locking her legs tightly between mine. I relaxed myself to a point that my breathing was long and deep, and my heartbeat a slow, gentle thud. Stiff at first, this technique of mine worked to coax her into unwinding and, in a matter of minutes, she, too, was breathing nice and slow, her heart-rate dropping to a steady enough rhythm to match my own.

Operation Get Sakura to Fall in Love with Me So That I Can Sleep with Her and In Turn Save Her from an Untimely Death didn't seem to be going as well as I had hoped. I had wasted an entire precious night of what could have been gathering the vital information I needed from Naruto to get Sakura to fall for me by, instead, shutting him out and going back to square one. I was wasting valuable time and I knew this as I proceeded to do as I was doing and bury my head into Sakura's hair, reveling in her sweet vanilla scent.

By sneaking into Sakura's tent, not initiating any real sexual activity, and cozying myself down next to her in the way one usually did when they weren't getting any, I wasn't making any development at all.

'_Oh, well,'_ the sleepy voice inside my head butted in. _'you still have plenty of days left to go. She'll fall in love with you sooner or later.'_

But the optimism that I had gotten from Akamaru's encouragement earlier this evening had dwindled to a point that I now begged to differ with it. Sakura was no closer to falling in love with me than she was with that blond nincompoop of a teammate, Naruto; that I could firmly state true.

With a sigh, I willed myself not to think of anymore troubles. With that very same sigh, I allowed myself to open my mind and drink in the present; dreaming only of the pink-haired girl whose name resembled my now all-time favorite flower.

Inuzuka's aren't known to be particularly mushy or thoughtful - so if one were to sneak this secret of mine out to anyone, I would reverently denounce it like my life depended on it - but, for now, instead of getting Sakura to fall in love with me as planned, I was beginning to think that maybe – just maybe – I was beginning to fall in love with _her._

…

_Oh, shit._

And here I thought things just couldn't get any worse.

Damn was I wrong.

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**Author's Note:** Sigh. I know. Not the best work, Hannah, please do better. I would have if I could have but that would deny you of another update for, like, YEARS. I did my best to get this done as well as possible. Really, really tough work. This chapter was a struggle to write and I have to say, I'm not ecstatic about it.

Maybe your reviews can help fix that, though?

Tell me what you think, what you like, what you don't like, and what you'd like to see. I'll reply your reviews for next chapter, I promise. I'm not in the habit of responding reviews very often, so I'll try doing it in alternate chapters or something.

Review!

Oh, waitsss, by the way, just wanted to let you know, go to my profile page and check out my blog (the blogger version) from there. I have all sorts of updates on Leashed and I am a more active respondent through that channel. Check it out, and don't forget to let me know you've dropped by, k? Happy 2011.


	8. Complications

**Author's Note:** 4 weeks and, yes, I've counted. 4 long, busy weeks away from my last update and I'm on my knees right now, begging you'd forgive me. This is my first week off from the most hectic college life ever and I am now utterly relieved to say that PERHAPS, with your help, I may even manage to get chapter nine done before the break's over. _Perhaps. _

Anyway, enough babbling. I'd rather keep you updated via my blog (find it through my fanfiction profile page!) than waste your time with super long notes over here.

Read and review!

* * *

Many thanks to 1Gaasaku vs 1SasuSaku, angelsgurl12, AshenMarsha, Sakura00017,sakurax9, Eilistraee, violentblossom, speedangel, Charm Caster-chan, LadyNorth76, AJlovesKakashi, Awsmness, EELON, Dark Paine, PeaceToTheStars, Cehmacc14, Nature Girl27, Sato Hoshiko, Victoblerone, sKyLaR KnIgHt, PleaseSirAccept, Cheyenne Uchiha, Kcoolkat24, NiGHTxRECONNAiSSANCE, savagebeauty1981, ThereNBack, zerOtonada, Xx-Silent Ookami-Xx, Dreamer's Ink, Lovetowritehannah, D, Miyabi Doll and amanda for all your love and support. Without you guys, this chapter would never be here; I mean it. And to those who read and follow my blog, I owe you big time. Much love. :)

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Chapter VIII: Complications

_(Sakura)_

"Sakura-chan! Sakura-chan, where are you?"

The voice calling out to me from a nearby distance was none other than that of Naruto's, but instead of arising from behind the bushes and announcing my presence to him like I ought to have done, I instinctively found myself shrinking down even lower; trying to hide myself to such the extent of masking even my chakra signature so that I wouldn't give away my hiding spot.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto's cries had taken a more desperate sort of plea. "We really should get going soon; we're already losing daylight. I mean, I know that most of this is my fault because I woke up late and everything, but still... we shouldn't be wasting any more time. Besides, Kiba's really worried about you."

At the mention of Kiba's name, my whole body froze and a creeping sensation of what I decided could only have been anxiety fluttered around in the pit of my stomach; sickening me. I found myself then swallowing a hard, painful lump down my throat as a thousand and one memories from the night before came flooding back to me like a tidal wave all at once—

-The squashing of bodies, the none-too-subtle gestures he'd make against my exposed flesh, the knowledge that I was being scrutinized in my position of feigned sleep all the while, and, most drastically, the fact that, when I had finally woken up the morning after from a very nervous slumber, he was still there; creamed up next to me so intimately that the hairs on the back of my neck rose on end and emergency bells rang loudly in my head like an enraged beacon, beckoning that I get the hell out of there.

Which was what I did, by the way.

And which action now led me to my current position; hiding behind a bush like some incompetent idiot.

'_Oh, Sakura, you're such a coward,' _hissed Inner Me for the nth time today, choosing to put on an air of utmost displeasure when acknowledging me; a reaction so unreasonably immature and as close to sulking as an imaginary voice can get.

Oh, Kami, I'm going crazy, all right.

It's one thing to be a so-called 'dignified' 21-year-old Jounin belly-flopped against the earth in humiliating attempt to get away from her best friend and future husband (with whom she _still_ can't come to terms with being intimate with! Argh_, stupid!_), but a whole other thing entirely to be making _bloody _conversation with the _bloody _voice inside my head who was, just to add salt to the open wound of my situation today, currently _mad_ at me.

What the hell!

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto's last call for me was just as futile as the ones before, so when the fact finally struck him that maybe I just didn't want to be found at the moment, I heard him breathe a frustrated sigh and scuffle back to the camp. "Sakura-chan, just... don't take too long, okay?"

The sadness behind his tone was unmistakable, and as he walked off in the opposite direction, shoulders slumped and expression defeated, I was suddenly overcome by the inexplicable need to chase after him; to crush him in a hug and wail out all the injustices of my predicament to him.

But, of course, I couldn't do that. I still didn't have the guts to face his reaction, for one thing, and I wasn't at all ready for any sort of confrontation from Kiba's end either – no doubt I'd have some explaining to do for his sake, also.

Geez. The joy of being Haruno Sakura just doesn't let up, does it?

Not that that's the worst of it; because, trust me, you have yet to hear the worst of it.

The worst possible thing last night occurred only when I had finally heeded to the forceful edge behind my Inner's voice. In my victorious attempt to fall asleep, I dreamt of what had to be just the most awful thing ever; a dream (or should I call it a nightmare?) so horrible that I couldn't bring myself to stare my own image back through the mirror – because that's just how bad I felt.

The dream I had (and God knows I hate to run through this and remind myself about it), whilst crushed up against Kiba – the hot and perfectly well-behaved man who would soon be my _husband for life_ – was none other than (damn it, damn it, damn it, why am I even thinking about this?) one where Uchiha Sasuke played lead male protagonist to my useless, pathetic bitch of a self.

And, oh, God, do I feel like a bitch!

Who in their right of mind – oh, wait, scratch that – how much of a SLUT could I be to be dreaming of another man whilst in the arms of my FUTURE HUSBAND? How AWFUL am I?

And, not to mention, the dream-Sasuke still managed to run shivers down my spine and a rush of absolute delight just seemed to burst out from every bit of me from his untimely entrance; a feat not met since, what, _years _ago?

So, why now? Why him? Why of all times would Uchiha Sasuke, the ex-love of my life, be appearing in my dreams (his beautiful obsidian eyes clouded over with lust and his warm, experienced hands just accurate in their caresses on me) when I should have been fangirl-ing over the fact that my fiancé was positively fawning over me?

'_Because you're an ass, obviously,_' sneered Inner Sakura as answer to my troubled thoughts. _'You're an ass to continue stressing over this. If I were you – which I ought to be – I'd go up to that smexy husband of mine and glomp the magnificent creature out of him. Are you bloody blind? He's gorgeous.'_

Her shallowness aside, I had to admit that "Yes," was my immediate mental reply to this. "But he isn't-."

I paused mid-sentence, realizing with dilated irises and gaping lips that what I was about to say next was exactly the reason behind my still crouched so childishly behind bushes.

_...he isn't Sasuke_, was the ugly truth of what I was about to say. _He isn't the guy I loved for years, even after he left me in the dust. He isn't the guy I wouldn't think twice about throwing my life away for; the guy I imagined an entire life with; the guy who was, basically put, the very essence of my youth and innocence._

I didn't love Inuzuka Kiba; and as nice as he was to step aside when he thought I needed some time to myself, I don't think I'll ever—

"Sakura?"

This time, the voice to call out to me was no longer Naruto's. It was deeper, huskier, and it made my blood run cold.

Moving my eyes to where the direction of the voice came from, I realized that, through the leaves of the bushes I was hiding behind, said Inuzuka Kiba was staring straight at me; his lips upturned in a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, and a hand outstretched so that I would grab on to it.

"Sakura, you do know that even by containing your chakra, I can still sniff you out, right?"

I bit my lower lip, hesitance being the force keeping me down but logic urging that I stop acting like an inexperienced academy student and acknowledge defeat where it looked me in the eye (rather literally, might I add).

Logic winning my mental argument, I did what was sought of me and took his offered hand; rising to my feet and dusting the dirt off my medic-skirt and boots from where I lay crouched. "Is... Naruto...?" I began, my voice a smidgen shaky.

"I told him I'd deal with you and he's off moping somewhere by the tent," was Kiba's hasty reply before his eyes took a softer, more worried warmth to it and he asked me in more gentler words the question I yearned to run away from, "Was it something I did wrong?"

_No!_ I wanted to scream, loud and fierce for all the world to hear and witness. _No, Kiba, you're perfect! _I wanted to grab him by the neck and shake the senses out of him. _No, Kiba, you did _nothing_ wrong, so stop looking at me with those heart-wrenching eyes and start realizing that the girl you're falling for is none other than an absolute jerk! Slap her! Hit her hard! Do whatever you want to her, just don't..._

"I'm fine," was what I said instead, an extra-cheerful grin on my face to express the magnitude of how supposedly 'fine' I was. "I just... things are going too fast, you know?"

Deep down inside of me, my Inner Self was going stir-crazy; practically foaming in the mouth as she punched the shit out of the walls of my skull; screaming and lashing out at me for being so... so _selfish_ as to keep this guy ignorant of my distress.

"Aah," said Kiba, nodding his head in a mixture of both satisfaction and understanding. "Sorry about that. But, Sakura, you just have no idea what I'm going through right now."

_Oh, yes I do._

Kiba's sister, Hana, made it crystal clear exactly what he was going through when she pulled me over to one side and spoke to me in a brisk, confidential tone of voice the day before, "Sakura-san, you must understand, if my brother doesn't get his way with you – if you continue not allowing him to mate you – you both are going to suffer the consequences."

"And that would be?" I had said at the time, a hazy expectation coming to mind.

"_Death."_ Her voice was sharp and ominous; reminding me of how insignificant I was when it came to the prestigious clan's inner workings and traditions. "In your case, because, trust me, when an Inuzuka loses control, anyone but himself would be on the losing end."

...So, _yes,_ basically. I do know what Kiba was going through. I understood perfectly what was going on when he initiated more contact with me than he had previously tried before; when his eyes glazed over me almost affectionately, his fingers hesitant as they hovered over certain parts of me, as if contemplating whether he should break the sacred wall that stood between us.

"Very well, then, I'll do whatever is necessary of me," was my final reply for when Hana had jabbed me for an affirmation to the cause.

"Good," said Hana, giving me a curt nod not unlike Kiba's own just a couple of seconds ago. "Make sure you do soon, because I don't think my little brother is in the capacity to... withhold himself from his basic needs much longer."

A nod from me, a bow, a wave of goodbye, and the rest is history.

Even as I gave her my word, I knew in truth that I would never bring myself to do what she was asking me for – I would never allow myself to mate with Kiba anytime soon. And the dream I had last night pretty much confirmed it. The feelings I thought were no longer there still existed – my love for Sasuke, though not as obsessive as it was before (and I admit this to you now for the mere reason being that it is a fact), certainly remained throughout the progress of age. They were simply pent-up and hidden from everyone; from me, even; to such an extent that I had deluded myself with the belief that I had moved on.

"I'm going to die," I said to myself, almost resolutely, as I left the conversation I had with Hana the other day and bumped into Kiba, announcing that I was ready to leave. "Let's go_. Pronto_," I had snapped, pale-in-the-face and almost zombie-like as I made my exit.

"_Die, die, die, you're going to die,"_ the haunting mantra had played; over and over again like a blood-curling melody, all the rest of the way through our journey yesterday whilst Kiba seemed to be caught up in his own world and Naruto remained just as ignorant and gullible as ever. _"Death before your birthday. Death before your dreams. Death before marriage, even. Haruno Sakura, you're going to _die_."_

Despite having faith in my own abilities, I knew as well as any other that when it came to bloodline limit, I was no match – there were no geniuses in the Haruno clan, no long line of outstanding abilities, no impressive history to support my powers. What I had, I worked hard for, and while I was now finally acknowledged as a somebody in Konoha, when push came to shove, I had to face the fact that I would never compare to anyone as prestigious as the Inuzuka clan's most sacred technique.

"Sakura, are you there?"

Kiba's voice broke me out of my long reverie; snapping me to my senses.

"Wh—yes, yes, sorry, I guess I must've dosed off a bit," I offered him a little hastily. "What were you saying again?"

Kiba looked confused as he fixed me with a frown. "Are you sure you're alright? You're pretty out of character today, Sakura. I mean, not that I'm not used to stuff like this; but I'd usually expect this sort of thing coming from Hinata-chan, not you."

"I'm fine," I stressed further, stepping out of reach from the hand he was about to extend to my forehead. "I just needed some air – you know, to cool off from everything. But I promise, I'm fine now. So don't worry, you aren't going to have to turn back anytime soon and ask for a third member to complete the party."

"That's not what I was worried about, Sakura." The way he looked at me, that serene gaze that I never expected to see coming from Kiba of all people, made my heart ooze to the floor. With his frown still in place, he told me very sincerely, "Believe it or not, I – I'm really starting to care for you. And Naruto, he cares for you more than you can imagine. So... if you were to get hurt or something, I don't think I'd – he'd; WE'D – ever forgive ourselves. So... so if you're not okay, just tell me... alright?"

I froze in my place.

For Kiba to have said that; and the way he put it; it was like he was basically telling me that he...?

I gulped down the rising apprehension in my throat and switched to my defence mechanism-mode so immediately that it left me feeling a little dizzy in the head a while later. "We should go," was my habitual escape route; those three easy words that herded me out of sticky situations such as these. "Naruto will be waiting for us."

From behind me, I heard Kiba sigh, and, silently, the two of us made back for camp; both acting as if nothing had happened between us; like a new step in our relationship hadn't just transpired, Kiba hadn't practically confessed a new-found love towards me, and I hadn't just straightforwardly rejected him.

* * *

For six long hours, nothing out of the ordinary happened to break us out of our stride.

Like the ninjas we were trained to be, we flitted across the trees with ease; Naruto leading the way, me and Akamaru in the middle, and Kiba, still gloomy from our talk earlier, taking up back flank. In a way, we made a good team – after losing a couple of unretainable hours from my little episode this morning, Naruto was eager to cover the extra ground; and the rest of us had no complaints; after all, I wasn't all that ready for the night time when Kiba would have to sneak in with me and a repetition of the night before would have to begin all over again.

"Stop!" cried Naruto all of a sudden, skidding to a halt in his tracks and forcing us to do the same; our every muscle tense in preparation for his next order. "There's someone in the forest."

Despite making a name for himself for being the loudest ninja in Konoha, among our circle of shinobi, we knew well enough that when the time called for it, Naruto could be awfully dependable. When he said that there was someone in the forest, there was most definitely someone in the forest, and more often than not, that someone had hell to offer, because Uzumaki Naruto didn't just stop for anyone.

"I know that scent," hissed Kiba, sniffing the air in with an upturned nose; his brown eyes narrowed in what I figured was disgust. By his side, Akamaru was taking defensive position and growling aggressively. "It's—"

Before sense could be made of the situation, I found myself being pummelled to the earth.

All around me, my teammates were yelling their own ferocious battle cries.

What happened then was so fast and so sudden that I hardly managed to comprehend anything. All I knew was that I was in trouble, my team was being attacked, and I had to fight back. My hands flying into seals I barely recognized in my haste, I released a fireball from my lips and blew it out to my attacker, screaming, "Katon, Gokakyu no Jutsu!" as I leaped into the air and did some complicated twists for a better angle.

His form covered in the darkness of a hooded sweater, all I could make of the enemy was that it was a definite male, and judging from how lithely he avoided the hot fire I had precisely aimed at him, he was, no doubt, very capable in his field of play – whatever that may be.

"He must be one of the rogue assassins!" I had just enough time to think before having to flip over again and dodge an incoming array of shuriken. "So much for just being a civilian!"

Cursing my luck and my mentor's bad judgement, I focused a shot of chakra down my fists and released it at the precise moment in time for the unleash of my greatest offensive skill – my raw, brutal fists.

BAM!

Instead of attacking the rogue-nin as I had intended to, the unfortunate tree to have taken the impact of my punch was blown to smithereens and a flurry of leaves and crushed bark started raining down on me.

"Hn, impressive," was my enemy's callous words as he escaped the harm of my smash with an almost liquid ease. "And here I thought you'd be useless."

Shivers ran down my spinal cord from the enemy's monotonous voice – something about the way he said it, the voice itself even, seemed to irk me as I gritted my teeth into my most fearsome snarl and shot back at him, "If you think I'm impressive now, just wait until you see my true ability!"

A strange sound came from behind the mask of my mysterious rival-nin; the sound of a sneer, most likely. "Go ahead then," he said tonelessly, though the dripping hints of doubt was obvious in his every word. "Surprise me."

'_YEAH, show him, SHANNARO!'_ cheered Inner Me in my mind, punching her imaginary fists in the air in a show mock-enthusiasm. _'Show him how much of a pushover we're NOT!'_

"My pleasure," I replied, drawing chakra down to the soles of my feet, springing forward in an unpredictable burst of speed, and tackling the masked shinobi down from where he wasn't ready for it.

In a mass of limbs and cuts and bruises, we were both then spiralling to the earth; his eyes, from even behind the mask, I could tell were now wide open – I had gotten his attention now.

"Don't call me weak," I hissed, the beginnings of a chakra-infused punch at the ready as I balled my hands into fists and steadied my aim to his jaw.

"Prove otherwise," he muttered, before he kicked me off with an 'oof' of pain on my end, drew up into the canopy of leaves up above, and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

I hit the floor with a resounding crash; the feeling of skin ripping apart and bones crushing over marking an end to a terribly off day.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto's voice approached me just a second or so later, his crystalline eyes filled with worry. "I saw you were attacked and I wanted to help you but I—SAKURA-CHAN, YOU'RE BLEEDING!"

_Thank you, captain obvious_! I so painfully wanted to spit at him, but chose not to for the sake of storing my energy. "Just help me up," I said instead, still broken and limp from the impact of my fall. "I can heal myself later."

Naruto nodded frantically and with great delicacy bent over to cup me in his hands. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he began mumbling in his usual panic. "I should have been there but I was attacked and I called out to you and the guy kept blocking me in my path and when I saw you made the Katon Gokyaku no Jutsu I figured you were doing okay but I-!"

"Shut up, Naruto," I wheezed between breaths, forcing a smile out of myself despite everything. "You did everything you could. Stop feeling guilty about yourself and let me down so that I can patch myself up."

With a nod and the same worried expression lining his face, I was set gently down against a tree; Naruto crouched down next to me for accompaniment, staring at my healing process like he himself was in the process of recovering from a ghost-encounter. "Sakura-chan, I'm sorry," he would mumble every now and then when he saw I would wince from the pain of my recovery. "I should've been there..."

I bit back the yell that threatened to escape my lips – the scream that wanted to tell this boy off for being so god-damn worried about me all the time. The scream that wanted everybody to just stop treating me like I was some pathetic damsel in distress. _Really, was I that useless?_

The words of the masked shinobi had sparked an animosity in me earlier. When he had called me weak, I just wanted to go ballistic on him; and only when I saw his eyes widen in fear did I feel a mounting satisfaction. For a second there, before he had disappeared from me so unpredictably as he did, I had caught him off guard – I wasn't just a mop of pink hair and feminine features. It felt so... _good_ to feel in control for once.

With one hand still nursing the bones that protruded out of my kneecaps, the other tightened in fury. "I'll grow stronger," I said to myself while Naruto was preoccupied with his own guilt. "I'll grow even stronger than I am now and prove to them – _all of them –_ that I'm no weakling. I'll show that ninja, and Naruto and Kiba, too, that I'm no pushover. Even if I have to die in the process."

With the last sentence came a flash of what I imagined to be the nearby future: me and Kiba, face to face; though his face wasn't one I was typically accustomed to. It was fierce and animalistic and it bore the need to rip me apart and leave me as a bleeding pile of has-been human on the floor.

Speaking (or, in this case, thinking) of Kiba however, where was he?

I paused in my fury, sitting up with a straight back to survey my surroundings.

Worry started to flood my senses and my mind began working on overdrive. There was so much I could do to help myself from getting up and hysterically searching the area from top to bottom, regardless of the pain that shot up through my limbs like tiny explosions, and the blood that leaked from every inch of me, staining my attire.

_KIBA!_ My mind screamed frenetically. _KIBA! KIBA!_

"Here..." muttered Kiba, almost like an answer to my mental calls; just as broken and as in bad condition as I was – perhaps even _more_ so – as he limped into our viewpoint supported by a wounded Akamaru and collapsed against an opposite tree bark, his dark lids fluttering to stay conscious and his chest rising and falling in desperate heaves.

"Kiba, what happened?" cried Naruto, rising to his feet and helping Kiba lift himself up to a more proper position.

"_Here..."_ continued Kiba, his voice so deadly close to a whisper that my whole being went numb at the anticipation of his incoming words. "_He's..._ here..."

"_Who's_ here, damn it?" Naruto egged on, angry and impertinent as usual.

Dark brown eyes lifted to meet my own frightened green ones in a clash of epic proportions. A strained pause lingered in the air before our eye-contact was finally broken and Kiba turned to glare at the ground in front of him instead. Barely any time was given for me to register the situation and allow things to better sink in before his lips ripped apart and a growl so bestial escaped him; the first sightings of Inuzuka Kiba's dark side that I would forever look back at with fear;

"Uchiha," he rumbled, not daring to look up and bare to me his dilated pupils and canine fangs. _"Uchiha Sasuke."_

And if there was ever a more suitable choice of words to describe how I felt at that moment, it was always bitter and always sarcastic -

_Why me?

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_

**Author's Note:** Dun, dun, dun! And so the true plot begins whereby Uchiha Sasuke makes his appearance, Sakura is as torn and confused and as messed up as ever, Inuzuka Kiba is in love and jealous and Uzumaki Naruto is, umm, lost? Not only that, but the clock is ticking for our two mismatched lovebirds to get 'things done' or else face the ugly consequences.

Will a mating scene ever happen? Will Sakura finally just drop the whole Sasuke ordeal and deal with her priorities? Will humor still somehow be incorporated into the mix?

Like I've said earlier on in the author's note before, please take a look (as well as follow!) my public blog for some updates on how far my story has gotten. Also, I'm thinking of doing an in-depth analysis on my current progress, so do look into that later as well. My blog can be found on my fanfiction profile page.

And before you get on about it, _yes,_ I know, the ending was rushed, the characters were a little off, and, I do very much realize that I tried too hard to squeeze in some plot to this chapter; but can you blame me? The burden of trying to get an update done was seriously taking a toll on my normal life. No exaggeration here, people – I suffered some major bouts of depression every time the thought came to mind (and trust me, it came often) that I hadn't kept my promise. Argh. Stress.

Review, please!


	9. Of Hiding

**Author's Note:** After almost (/over?) two looong years of hiatus, I have finally decided to update! And why? Because your persistent reviews have forced me into a guilt trip, that's why. Haha. JK. But, really, it's been such a long time, I don't think I even remember how to write decent fanfiction, so, please, bear with me. I know the following chapter is just going to be… littered… with all sorts of errors both grammatically and substantially, so, feel free to write me reviews criticizing every aspect of my work. I probably deserve it anyway.

I have a long thought-out list of reasons explaining why I've been so God-forsakingly slow at updating but, because I haven't updated so long, I'll spare you the details. To make things simple: Number One, I am a perfectionist and have been feeling for the longest time now that my writing has not been up to par; Number Two, I have been very busy; Number Three, I felt as if my last chapter left me with no room left to develop the story and, ultimately, Number Four: with the latest progress of Naruto Shippuden the Manga, I felt this story has been extremely… AU.

_Sigh._

Well… best we move on now. Word of warning, though: this chapter is not the best. I promise you better chapters soon to come, but for the sake of giving you an update anyway, here goes.

Read and review! :)

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My heart and soul goes out to my many excellent and amazing reviewers: Xx-Silent Ookami-Xx, AshenMarsha, Sakura00017, Dreamer's Ink, Victoblerone, amanda, anotherloveroffanfiction, colourfulgurl, VaerinFox, Kcoolkat24, Cehmacc14, Sha-Chan, ThereNBack, sKyLaR KnIgHt, Eilistraee, AjlovesKakashi, Greatness Alone, Fairy of Anime, uk-storm-trooper, Lovin'nhanna, pancakes and waffles, zerOtodona, gemaima11, SakuKiba, Savage Thunder, Essha, Kavfh, Sakuraangel1327, maxridelover, Kenikitten, Flooded Minds, Emzo111, akki818, avid-reader21, SanctuaryFive, Crazy-in-love-with-books, Kotone11, catty12, Jaylee-Rebel, thentherewasIA, crimsonmitsukai34, xXEdwardxSakuraXx, StarKiss666, animemanganet, dracolady1441, SakuMulti, cuito, love-ain't-easy, Yomi Love Akasuna, Reverence on the Night Rain, kibas gir1, , MoonxCandycane, Allen-holic, S.A, dramioneferret, Hina Sarutobi, samigirl96, hyuugahinata247, UchihaSyaoran1720, The Moon's Mistress, Amaya and Aiko no Akatsuki, narukiba101, Guest, Chels860816, leeniejs, Kitsune6, InARealPickle, Draco Oblivion, PleaseSirAccept. And just in case I missed out on any names, I extend to you my most humble apologies – I really do mean to thank all of you! :)

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Chapter IX: Of Hiding

_(Kiba) _

"Kiba, can you please at least talk to me?"

Not for the first time that night, Sakura was at my tail trying to get me cough up some sort of information about Sasuke. Having dealt with a similarly agitated Uzumaki Naruto earlier, I snorted. This was all really pissing me off. "No," was my abrupt response, cutting her next remark short mid-sentence.

Green eyes glared at me furiously; a fact that I was happy to ignore as I proceeded to make my way to the campsite.

"Kiba, don't be an idiot," she argued, shoulders back and chest puffed up in her usual indignant way. "As your teammates, you don't have a choice but to share information vital to the completion of this—,"

"Oh, shut up, will you!" I retaliated, this time finally having turned to address her eye-to-eye. "Let me guess, you're gonna tell me that you need to know about Sasuke's whereabouts for this 'mission'? Oh, please, it doesn't take a tactician to figure out that you've still got the heats for that bastard traitor Uchiha."

Sakura was promptly still all of a sudden, a point which, I realized, served only to rile me up even further.

"You still like him, don't you?" I spat, my face hardly masking the feeling of repulsion that had overcome me. "Still harbour this pathetic little fantasy that, ooh, one day, you and your 'prince charming'-bastard of the Uchihas, will sweep you off your feet and whisk you away into a land of sunshine and motherfucking rainbows?"

Sakura's continued silence proved seriously potent to my growing anger hence I found I had no choice but to keep at it.

"Bet you'd be happy to have gotten stuck with him instead, yeah? Bet you would have been all up for the idea of splitting your legs wide open—,"

"Kiba—."

"—throwing your head back—,"

"Kiba, please..."

"—and screaming his name at the top of your lungs as he thrust his dick into your pussy."

Tears started gathering up in Sakura's eyes now, and although I could tell she was distressed, I was on a roll and nothing was about to stop me from getting to my point.

"He doesn't fucking love you," I said at last. "He tried to kill you when you were 15, remember? I was there. You fucking knocked me out to retrieve him. Mark my words – Uchiha Sasuke will never love you. Ever!"

This was where I decided to make my dramatic exit. Having said all I needed to say, I spun on my heels and was seconds away from flitting out of sight, before;

"And you do?"

My heart stopped for a millisecond. Just one. I didn't turn back to look at her as, drawing from the hate and feeling of repulsion I was having earlier, I spat in malice, "Of course not."

And then I left.

* * *

"You told her WHAT?"

I rolled over on my side, making sure my back faced Akamaru as I prepared a response to his yip of astonishment. "Don't get your titties in a twist, I was just pissed off, that's all," I replied, grumpily. "Besides, she obviously knows I don't mean it. We've been in all sorts of arguments since this whole..." I waved my hand around, trying to find the appropriate terminology to label our current predicament. "'humping' fiasco came into the picture. She'll get over it."

"And what if she doesn't?" Akamaru's bark sounded weary as he slowly lowered his chin to lie against my shoulder. "I'm no expert, but from my experience, bitches don't tend to agree when we tell them we don't exactly love them. Then again, it might not be the same for you – is Sakura anything like a bitch?"

"Yes," I snapped, shortly. "Always. Well… no, not really always, but definitely most of the times. She…" I sighed, rolling over once again so that I had a clear view of the midnight sky. "...I didn't mean it when I said I didn't love her."

"So you do love her?"

I paused, letting the depth of Akamaru's question sink in.

Did I really love her?

Did I love the way she made my heart thump against my chest when she inched closer to me every night – allowing me to wrap my arms around her and burry my nose into her soft, luscious hair? Did I love how good she smelled whenever she stepped out of the bathroom? Did I love how she balanced a pen over her nose as stared up at the ceiling; trying to search for answers for one of those ridiculous crossword puzzles she was so keen on doing? Did I love how she made my adrenaline rush whenever her green eyes lit up so intensely every time we were in a fight? Did I love how she battled me for dominance, instead of simply giving in each time as most girls were used to?

"...Well?" Akamaru tried again, when the silence finally got too heavy.

I shrugged. "I don't know. Love is overrated. This whole marriage shit is overrated. But..." Seeing Akamaru stare at me with his large, calming eyes, I let my head drop and graced him with a half-smile. "Like it or not, she is still my mate; and we're in this thing together. I guess I should apologize... Stupid, troublesome woman."

Akamaru's bark came out as a laugh this time around, as he stood as a crutch to help me to my feet and pranced around happily as we made our way to Sakura's tent.

* * *

"Sakura!" I called after readying myself with an apology speech and taking in a deep breath. "Sakura! Would you come out here? Look, I'm sorry about what happened just now, I didn't really mean it when I said I didn't care."

No response. She was ignoring me.

I breathed another sigh and tried again. "Sakura... I-I know I don't sound all sincere most of the times, but... hear me out, k? I'm not good with emotions. You-,"

I closed my eyes and tried to recall Sakura's own brilliant green ones staring straight at me. Looking hurt and confused after what I had said earlier today.

"You deserve better. I mean, I know what I said just now was downright shit of me – and I should feel like shit about saying it, which I do! I do – totally—feel like shit; but... you, you really deserve better. Than Sasuke. I know… he got the looks and all; and he's supposed to be the towns' freaking 'prodigy' but, heck, I'm set to be the next Alpha of my clan and at least I'm not a traitor!"

Imagination-Sakura furrowed her brows and looked about ready to blow a casket again.

"Woah, woah, okay, okay, sorry," I said, waving my hands around in mock-surrender. "I didn't mean it like that. All I'm saying is… is…"

"Just say it!" Akamaru hissed, nipping at my ankles excitedly.

"…Maybe I'm not the man you love. I'm certainly no Uchiha Sasuke. But… maybe, if you gave me a chance… you can… learn… to love me. Coz I for one know for a fact that, although we've had our ups and downs, I—,"

Sakura's eyes were sparkling.

"—certainly –,"

They sparkled so much, in fact, that they were almost a deep shade of blue.

"—lo—,"

"KIBA! KIBA DID YOU HEAR A WORD I SAID! KIBAAAA!"

I jumped back, startled, as, instead of the imaginary-Sakura I had been so close to, umm, confessing to, was Mr. Loudmouth himself – blonde and orange and blue and all up in my face, poking me.

"What the fuck, Naruto?! Get off me! Can't you see I'm in the middle of something important!" I snapped, shoving the idiot out of my personal space. "And quit prodding me with your chubby little fingers, I'm trying to talk to Sakura!"

"Sakura – where?! Dog-breath, that's what I'm calling you for! Sakura-chan's missing!"

"What're you talking about?" I retaliated, heart pounding. "She's right inside of her tent—who the hell else could I have been talking to? The fucking air?!"

"Well, beats me who you've been talking to!" Naruto yelled right back. "Coz I just came out of her tent and she isn't there! I've been searching all over the place for her! She's MISSING!"

That's when it dawned on me:

Uchiha Sasuke, my stomping on the very idea of a romantic interest in Sakura, and Haruno Sakura herself.

Damn it all, this is just like what happened back when we were 15, except, this time, instead of Naruto, I'm the one in the bloody mix.

"Naruto," I glowered, snatching up a kunai from one of my pockets and eyeing the now equally serious-looking blonde. "It looks like we're gonna have to put this mission on hiatus for now. We've got to find Sakura."

Resolute despite the tiring events of earlier today, Naruto turned to face out into the darkness of the forest for any sign of his only female teammate. "Where do we start?"

My response was simple:

"By tracking down Uchiha Sasuke."

* * *

It had been at least two hours since we had made the decision to leave camp and search for Sakura, but neither Naruto nor myself seemed about ready to settle in for the night. Granted, it was a stupid decision as most other shinobi would have reasoned that there would be no logic in exerting an entire team to the point of exhaustion only to send them up against a man who was well known for his prowess as a ninja, but, hell, we _are _still talking about Uzumaki Naruto and Inuzuka Kiba, so choices didn't necessarily_ have_ to be reasonable. Besides, where Naruto was concerned, Haruno Sakura, one of his few best friends on the entire planet, was missing and, for myself, well, clearly Sakura and I have a thing going on so I don't think elaboration is necessary at this particular point of time.

"Damn it, Sakura!" I hissed as I promptly covered several feet of air by a single leap. "Why'd she have to go and do this again? Didn't she learn from the last time?"

Matching my pace without a sign of stress, Naruto glanced at me. "You wouldn't understand," was his response. "Where there's Sasuke, Sakura-chan's bound to go trailing along. She can't help it. She does love him, after all."

Gee, way to give my spirits a boost. "You know, you should really stop saying that," I replied, eyes hardening. Noticing that Naruto was close to opening his fat trap again in furious reply, I quickly cut him short, "This habit of her up and leaving only to chase after boy-wonder over there can really be detrimental to the team. She's supposed to be a Jounin and a top medic-nin, not a liability. If you ask me, she should let go of her childish fancies over the Uchiha and move on. Your telling me that she can't help it isn't much use either – in fact, all you're doing is encouraging her. So here's a tip: drop it."

All of a sudden, I found my back up against the prickly bark of a tree, lungs wheezing as Naruto's clawed hand wrung itself around my neck in a vice grip.

"BAKA!" he yelled. "Don't you say that! Sakura-chan and Sasuke are MY teammates! You have NO right to interfere with what we have going on in Team 7! You don't have any say in how we work!"

"Team 7 my ass!" I found myself retorting before I had the sense to take it back. My callous remark was met with a punch in the gut.

"TAKE IT BACK!" yelled Naruto, but I could only laugh.

"Please," I replied, as calmly and as slowly as an Inuzuka can when pressed up against a tree and supposedly rendered 'defenseless'. "The Team 7 YOU know and love got screwed up years ago. For you to still be holding on to such childish sentiments that Haruno Sakura belongs to Uchiha Sasuke and that 'That's the way it's always gonna be so, hey, Kiba, get your outsider-self out of our business!' – that's a load of bull."

Naruto's eyes narrowed as they slowly bled orange. Despite my knowing deep down that this ought to have been the point where any reasonable person, when put in my shoes, would have done the logical thing and shut up before said Naruto went all berserk-kyuubi on his ass, my off-day self felt the need to push the boundaries of the ordinary and opt for the road less taken – so I kept at it.

"Hear me out here," I went on to say. "And this not only goes for you, but for Sakura, and Sasuke, and damn it all, even that creep Sai and your Kakashi-sensei should listen up, too, coz what I'm about to tell you is valuable information – Sakura will not end up with Sasuke."

Naruto roared, lifting me by my neck and flinging me across the air into another tree. Thankfully, in my free state, I managed to recover and flip myself over to a more upright position. Instead of landing head-first into the tree as Naruto had intended, I poured chakra down into the soles of my feet and landed in a crouched position. My animalistic side blistering for action, I pounced on the one and only demon fox and slashed my claws against his face, smearing it open.

Grinning, I continued the speech I was making from earlier on, "You've got to understand, Naruto. Sakura doesn't belong with Sasuke. Her chasing after him is only a means of getting herself killed. If you truly care for her as much as you say you do, then you'll be half the man you think you are and snap her out of this delusion your entire team has got her in." With Naruto now pinned down beneath me, the tables had turned and I was certainly willing to reciprocate the Kyuubi's actions tenfold. In a heartbeat, I redid what was done to me earlier by doing the same with Naruto and wringing his neck with my one hand.

"Also, just so we're clear, I _do_ have a right to what Sakura-chan does – especially if it concerns Uchiha Sasuke – because Sakura—," On the mention of Sakura's name I had slammed Naruto's face into a tree. "—is—," I slammed Naruto's face in again. "_—MY_—," Another slam. "FIANCEE!"

I let go of Naruto and backed off, breathing heavily as, to my right, Akamaru placed his head reassuringly under the palm of my hand, and, across from me, Naruto scrambled to his feet, facing me with no traces of Kyuubi in his eyes. "She's your what?" he sputtered, looking completely incredulous. "B-b-but Sakura-chan and... But how?"

"My mate," I said simply, despite my haggard breathing. "I chose her. Well, technically, Akamaru chose her. And now, by Inuzuka laws, we are bound to be wed. She's my fiancée, not the Uchiha's, so I'd appreciate it if you and Sakura and the rest of the bloody world would stop trying to drag his traitor-ass back into the picture. Things are complicated enough at it is."

It was here that Naruto started to scratch the back of his head, a nervous/confused trait in which I myself was well acquainted with. "But… the two of you don't even know each other. Shouldn't you two be in love if you're gonna get married?"

I sighed. Naruto was thicker than I thought. Seriously, was this guy even 21? I am not about to stand around here trying to explain the mechanics of bloody adult relationships to this lunk-head while my fiancé is off getting herself killed at 3am in the morning. "Look," I started, slowly, so that the idiot could catch up. "It's almost dawn, and we only have three options here – one, we could keep exploring this endless forest at this hour of the morning after having gone for an entire two days without rest; two, we could take a break and restore our energy for a better search tomorrow at sunrise; or, three, we could just stand here like two knuckle-heads trying to grasp the meaning of life and love, but, if you ask me, personally, I would go for the second option, because we're both dead tired as it is, and we just spent our energy battling the hell out of each other, I doubt we'll be much of a match against the bloody Uchiha the next time we see him. If you wanna talk about marriage, feel free to chat it up with Akamaru, he has all sorts of experiences with the bitches."

And with that I left, only to be followed by the sound of Naruto going, "Hey, wait for me! Don't think you're out of the heat yet, asshole, coz that's MY teammate you're planning on wedding and you sure as hell have to answer to me first before you even THINK of laying a finger on her!"

* * *

"Kiba? Are you awake?"

I clenched my eyes tightly shut and made a big deal out of snoring loudly, hoping the blonde idiot would take the hint and leave me be. It was almost half past three in the morning, and after running Naruto through all the details of our engagement (from the actual humping affair to the fight which led us to our current predicament) and making perfectly sure I had (conveniently) left out the part about Sakura dying should I fail to properly sleep with her, I was more than ready to fall asleep.

Unfortunately for myself, however, Naruto – blockhead that he was – had other plans.

I'm telling you, this boy was impossible to deal with. This whole boy-sleepover thing he loved doing so much? I'm just surprised the Uchiha didn't leave any sooner.

"Kiba..." Naruto went on, despite my obvious snoring. "I… never thought I'd say this so… since you're asleep and all, I guess now's a better time than ever to just go ahead and spit it out…. Uhh… _anou…. _You're a lucky man."

My eyes shot open from where I was facing. Thankfully, though, I was not facing Naruto, so he was still unaware of my feigned state of sleep.

Naruto… thinks I'm lucky? But why? At best, Naruto and I have only ever shared a love for tom-foolery and pranks. We weren't exactly on buddy-buddy terms most of the times.

"You probably don't realize this but… I kinda like Sakura-chan," Naruto continued, his voice lowering to a whisper now. "Actually, who'm I kidding, I love Sakura-chan. See… since we were genin, I've always admired the way she was so… persistent about everything she did. How dedicated she was when she ran after what she wanted." Naruto's voice seemed to carry a sad weight to it as he followed it with a miserable-sounding chuckle. "More often than not, as you _do_ know, the thing she wanted most was Uchiha Sasuke – so, I… I couldn't get into the way of that. I couldn't bear to let her choose me instead of Sasuke 'coz I knew deep down that… that Sasuke was all she ever really wanted. Thinking back, though, I probably had all the opportunity in the world to get with Sakura-chan… but I blew it..."

Naruto's words were followed by heavy silence and, mentally, I urged him not to stop. Luckily for me, he did not disappoint.

"I don't know how your clan's laws go…" he went on. "Whether they bind both the two of you or just you, or if they even make you like one another at all, but… you're right about one thing, of course… Sakura-chan definitely deserves better. She's been pining after Sasuke since before we even became teammates, and her resilience – that's what I love about her. Personally, I don't think I could ever… stop…. Loving her."

_Th-thump. _I physically felt my heart rate lower. _So… Naruto's still in love with Sakura…?_

Despite not being in a position to witness Naruto's grin face-forward, I could feel its effect seeping into me as he carried on, "Don't worry, though. I won't get in the way of the two of you, if you're really serious. Sakura-chan doesn't think of me as anything more than a brother, anyway, and I would never force her to feel anything she doesn't want to feel, so… I just… hope for both of your sakes that things work out. Maybe… maybe Sakura-chan really could learn to love you, I don't know. That would be for the best, but…"

_But what? _

But what, damn it!

"But speaking from my own personal experience, I don't think that's ever going to happen."

_Th-thump. Th-thump. Thump._

"Good night, Kiba."

* * *

**Author's Note:** While I prefer to let my readers do the talking by telling me what they think of my work, if my two-cents are worth anything, let me just say that I am very, very dissatisfied with the quality of this chapter. This, you see, is the reason why I have such a hard time posting up new chapters – I am such a perfectionist! And an imperfect one at that. Oh, the irony.

Having said this, I do love this story and not want to end it on an abrupt note. From my own personal experience, I know how an author in choosing to give up a story can totally rip the heart and soul out of an avid reader (not that I'm saying my doing so in this story would have the same effect because I highly doubt I have such an ability, what with my bad writing and all) so, not to worry, I will do my very best NOT to leave you guys hanging.

So, as a means of solution to both YOUR problem and my own, here's my request: I am now opening myself up to a BETA Reader. I have never had any experience with a BETA before, and I know several people have been very nice to me by personally offering their services, but I felt that, as I have failed to update for over two years now, it would be very unfair to suddenly shove this particular chapter in said kind-offeror's face.

In other words, THIS particular chapter is clearly NOT BETA'd BUT for chapters to come **I am opening myself up to NEW BETA READERS.**

**If anyone is interested, please please please do contact me via my email address or my fanfiction account.** People with experience is preferable, but I personally don't mind anyone who feels they have the time or the interest to spend on my humble little updates.

DO extend me your assistance if you feel you match my criteria of being:

1. Very interested in moving this story the hell along, already!

2. A big, big fan of Haruno Sakura

3. A follower and fan of Leashed

4. Someone with experience as a BETA reader (preferable though not entirely necessary), and,

5. Someone who prioritizes plot-development and character-development over all else.

With your help, I will try my utmost best to continue this story and end on a high! Thank you in advance, people! Can't wait to read your reviews! ;)

(And, as usual, no flames, please!)


	10. And Seeking

**Author's Note:** Hi, guys. Thank you so much for the reviews and for continuing to support this story despite my 2-year absence from fanfiction. I was so touched you people were still into Leashed that I ordered myself to deliver the next chapter as quickly as possible, just as promised.

So, yeah. Without further ado, here's Chapter 10 for you!

Read and review!

.

* * *

Here's a shout out to all my wonderful readers: WolfPrinceKouga, maxridelover, Of Broken Love, AJLovesKakashi, Kittens Hellfire, hyuugahinata247, Toreh, Black-footed, Mei fa-chan, Davenme81, StarKiss666, InanelyBlissful, Greatness Alone, KinkyK and JazzyJ, SkittyPuffPuff, Allen-holic, AshenMarsha, rlance03, pluhsauce, Meril13, MinaBlahBlahBlahAnimeFan, .love58, Crimsontear, happycupcake096, Anoni Mos666, Guest, Saiyagurl87, Mentally Disturbed and JeanyDeiXzz.

Also, a very special shout out to my very wonderful BETA Reader,** Victoblerone** – thank you ever so much for putting up with my irritating emails and for correcting me where needed. Couldn't have done it without you! :)

* * *

.

"Sasuke-kun! STOP! Whatever you're planning – it's not worth it."

Sasuke's Sharingan blazed as his one hand tightened around his ex-teammate's neck, and the other reeled back in preparation of his infamous Chidori.

_Th-thump. Th-thump._

"Sasuke-kun, please," Sakura begged, her eyesight wearing thin, her fists trembling at her side from lack of chakra. "Come home. It'll just be you, Naruto and I again, just like it used to be, don't—don't do this. I promise… I promise we can be happy… Please…"

The blue light from Sasuke's Chidori intensified, and the heat that wafted from it scorched Sakura's already blood-marred flesh.

"You have a long way to go before you can catch up to either of us." Sasuke said, his voice hard and threatening, causing her breath to hitch. "Sakura… you are still so annoying."

Sakura froze.

Had she trusted her senses more and paid better attention to the tone of his voice, rather than the words he spoke, she would have recognized the edge of desperation that laced Sasuke's whisper. But Sakura didn't trust her ears – nor did she see any reason to. Not when the air around her was thinning, and the ball of electric energy which grew in Sasuke's hand served only to inch ever closer to her.

_Th-thump. Th-thump._

Haruno Sakura closed her eyes.

"CHIDORI!"

.

* * *

.

Chapter X: And Seeking

_(Sakura)_

_Th-tump. Th-thump._

"Sakura."

_Th-thump. Th-thump._

"Sasuke," I replied stiffly, biting down on the usual '-kun' suffix that threatened to slip out of my mouth. My heart was pounding, loud and hard, against my chest. I felt myself swallow what felt like dry, grainy sand as I disciplined myself to face him straight in the eye and keep my knees from trembling.

Uchiha Sasuke.

It had been 5 years since I last met him. Even now as his porcelain features looked weary and haggard from his time spent out in the wilderness, he still possessed the uncanny ability to render me – 21 and a full-fledged Jounin – helpless and meek before his very presence. Standing tall and regal despite the ungodly hour of our meeting, and the obviously overgrown bangs sweeping messily across his dark, merciless eyes, I found my fingers clenching and unclenching nervously around one of the kunai I had strapped around my upper left thigh.

"Let me guess – have you come to join us again?"

The shrill voice that was unmistakably female shook me from the stare-down I was having with my ex-comrade. I spun my eyes over to where the one Uzumaki Karin stood sneering at me, arms crossed. Having met Karin up close only once before (and during such terrible circumstances, might I add; Sasuke had ordered me to kill her right before his eyes to prove my devotion and loyalty to him when I alleged wanting to go rogue), my only knowledge of her prowess as a kunoichi was whatever scrap of information I was able to gather during several of my perusals through the bingo books.

_'Sensory-type nin,'_ Inner-Sakura hissed as flashes of information I had previously come across danced around as a reminder in my head. _'Also, she heals people… by allowing them to bite off of her.'_

_Ew._ Now that's an especially kinky ability if I've ever heard of any.

_'Wonder how many times she's allowed Sasuke-kun's lips to graze across her skin, huh, that little wretch…'_

I gripped the handle of my kunai harder, willing my inner self's inappropriate thoughts out of my head.

'Focus!' I reprimanded myself, shoving my inner persona's indignant cries to a more silent corner of my mind in an attempt to recognize the utter seriousness of the situation I had gotten myself into. 'This is not the time to think of Karin and… Sasuke-kun like that…'

_'Jealous, are you?'_ Inner Sakura hummed, an action to which I tried my utmost hardest to ignore. After all, I did, really, have much bigger problems on my plate think about. Specifically—

Number one, I had just run away from the rest of my team; an act which translated to my simultaneously disobeying my role as a kunoichi of Konohagakure and my duty as mentee to my immediate supervisor, Tsunade, Hokage of said Konohagakure.

Number two, I was running away from my fiancé. While, yes, to a certain extent my guilt in doing so was lessened considerably due to the said fiancé's outburst a couple of hours earlier, that did not mean I could render myself guilt-free entirely. No matter which way I tried spinning the story around to my favour, the fact remained clear as daylight – I ran away from my fiancé to get to a man whom everyone knows I most obviously had a 'past' with. This said, no matter how many excuses I had to back up my own terrible denial, my options didn't look good.

Number three, the guy whom I had chosen to run off for happens to not only be your regular, run-of-the-mill missing nin and traitor to Konoha-type, he also happens to own a record dedicated solely to his wrong-doings. In addition, said record was explicitly and exponentially also marked S-Class, meaning, super-duper dangerous. I should know – I did, after all, go through great and death-defying lengths to knock out my mentor, lie to a bunch of stone-faced ANBU and break into the store room marked, "TOP SECRET, DO NOT ENTER" just to get it.

This said, what _exactly _was I doing in front of an S-classed missing Nin whose records in Konoha's bingo books spoke volumes of his treachery?

I was holding a kunai.

…Yep, I am all about the genius, aren't I?

"Well?" Karin's voice sounded again, shaking me out of my reverie. "Are you going to just stand there gaping like an ugly blowfish or are you going to tell us what the hell business you have intruding into our territory, ugly?"

I bristled, only now realizing that on the one hand, Karin was absolutely correct in pointing out the fact that I had been staring much too long at Sasuke, and on the other hand that I had just been called ugly.

_'Told you she's a wretch,'_ my inner self was happy to chime in, having gained temporary escape from the deeper recesses of my mind.

"I've come to take you down," I replied to Sasuke straight on, pleased to note from the peripherals of my vision that Karin's face now wore a scowl promising my slow and painful death as I made no attempt to give her the light of day. "You're the rogue Nin terrorising the outskirts of Konoha – my order was to terminate you."

As obnoxious as Karin's laughter had been following my pitiful declaration, it was, in the end, Sasuke's smirk which did me in, and stung me the most.

"Hn. With all the ninja Konoha has lying around, you're the best they can afford to send?" he mused sarcastically, arrogance radiating out of his very being. "It really is a more pathetic village than I thought. Your people clearly made the wrong choice by throwing me out; especially when I was so kind as to offer them salvation."

I winced, recalling the last time Team 7 had properly reunited; back in the heat of war.

Having at one point fought side by side with one another, it had been the opinion of both Naruto and myself that perhaps Sasuke was back with us for good.

Oh, were we mistaken.

Turns out, Sasuke was more messed up than we thought. In his anger and hatred, Sasuke spun new truths for himself which he believed would bring real justice to the world. Instead of returning home to the village after killing off his brother as was his initial intention, Sasuke carved a new path of revenge for himself – the destruction of Konohagakure.

'Salvation' he called it. 'A new world order.'

He would destroy everything, he told us. All that Konoha stood for – its leaders, its politics, its people, its ninja way. He promised salvation to the world by then declaring his latest goal: to wipe out the current heads of Konoha and take his place as the new, more righteous Hokage.

It was too twisted for any of us to comprehend, even the remainder of Team 7.

So, after much persuasion from our parts, what happened next was a battle of epic proportions.

Sasuke versus Naruto, while I, as usual, found myself being sidelined to medic duty.

Thankfully, however, my being left to a corner was then not so much due to my complete inability to be of any form of assistance, but because (or atleast that was what I was made to believe) I had my hands already full with healing the dying and/or wounded of the Fourth Shinobi World War.

In the end, Naruto, of course, came out on top. And after a long, elaborate speech about his own ninja way and friendship (the usual Naruto agenda), Sasuke, not wanting to admit defeat or return back to the one place which had clearly 'done him injustice' escaped to fight another day; not, however, before shooting us with one last promise of regret.

Myself?

Just like when I was 12 before and Sasuke had just begun to take his first few steps out of Konoha as a newly established missing nin, I had gotten my few minutes alone with Sasuke before he defected.

This time, however, my few minutes were made up of less talk and more fist. I didn't get far, however, before Naruto stepped in to 'save me' and pull me out of one of Sasuke's more advanced forms of Chidori, but the last words Sasuke spoke to me before he and Nauto flew into a long, emotional exchange (followed later by the epic battle I mentioned earlier) resonated through me until this very day,

"_You have a long way to go before you can catch up to either of us. Sakura… you are still annoying."_

Upon him saying that, my heart had stilled.

It was from that point on, after the war and all throughout, I had promised myself that I would not rest until I grew strong enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with both Naruto and Sasuke – nothing was to distract me from reaching that aim.

Nothing, of course, until Kiba came along.

"_Sakura-san, you must understand_," I recalled Kiba's sister, Inuzuka Hana telling me in a brisk, confidential tone as she stood me in a corner and chastised me like a Genin._ "If my brother doesn't get his way with you – if you continue not allowing him to mate you – you both are going to suffer the consequences."_

"_And that would be?"_

"_Death."_

My palms bled from where my finger nails dug into them. I steadied my breath as I parted my legs in battle-stance.

_No_. If I'm going to die at all, I'd much rather die the noble death of a Shinobi risking her life for a mission than take the coward's way out by refusing to lie with a man I have yet to completely love.

"Sasuke," I started, ignoring his previous comment about wanting to bring salvation to our village by instead narrowing my eyes and fastening him with a steely gaze. "What are you doing here? You know better than to leave such sloppy evidence of your killings behind. This is clearly Leaf territory, and you are making your presence obvious. What the hell do you want?"

Sasuke's smirk only widened as he took in my changed persona. "Intuitive," he stated, though the way he drawled out the word sounded more like a mockery than a mere comment. "But it appears the Dobe's idiocy has rubbed off on you. Ever stop to think that this may have all been a trap?"

My heartbeat raced. A trap, yes, but what kind?

"From your reaction, I take it you came here thinking we'd be on equal ground – that you're busting me on a trap instead of falling for one," Sasuke's black eyes glinted maliciously behind those long, wispy bangs of his. "While it is not typically in my nature to bother filling in the details of my plans to my hostages, because you play such a pivotal role this time around, I will spare you a hint."

My ears pricked up in anticipation of Sasuke's next words. The fact that he had just called me a hostage was not lost to me, either.

"Sakura," said Sasuke, his tongue rolling on every syllable of my name, causing me to shiver in a reaction of mixed apprehension and (I was ashamed to admit) delight. "It was not by chance that you happen to stand before me in your mission today. This trap is meant specifically for you."

"M-me?" I breathed, feeling myself go slightly faint.

Now this was unexpected.

In all my knowledge and experience dealing with Uchiha Sasuke, not once did my existence play a role to his decisions. Always, it was Naruto or Kakashi who was the more significant piece to Sasuke's life choices, not me. I had always been nothing more than that stupid pink-headed girl destined to be outshined by her more prestigious teammates—

Sasuke was the sole survivor of the infamous Uchiha clan; the most powerful clan in ninja history.

Naruto had a freaking Kyuubi shoved down his throat and was the epitome of limitless power.

Kakashi was the dreaded Copy Nin and a genius in his own right, having been accepted into ANBU at the same age I barely figured out how to wield a kunai.

Heck, even Sai was from the feared Root division, and he didn't even have a surname to go with his title.

So now with Sasuke telling me that I had an important role, for once, in anything, and as his eyes remained drilled into me as if they were glued there, that shiver of mixed apprehension and (again it is my shame to admit) delight I was talking about earlier increased tenfold. My heart galloped against my chest even faster than it did before. My ears rang from the high of adrenaline.

"With your help, Sakura," said Sasuke, his tongue still doing that same rolling thing that made me tremble for action. "I will destroy Konohagakure."

Occupied by this new information and the guilt I harboured for having any positive reaction to what was now Sasuke threatening to destroy the very village I grew up in and have devoted my life to, I failed to notice a set of eyes darken from their position in the corner.

* * *

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**Author's Note:** Sooo... what do you think? As usual I can't help but to pummel myself with a truck-load of criticism. Like, for one, it took forever for me to link this fic (which started in 2010 and was kind of just left hanging from 2011 'til a couple of months back) to the current timeline in the manga. See, while I was well aware that I always had the option of just, I don't know, taking an alternate route from the way Kishimoto was going with the manga, it irked me personally to do so.

Hence the migraine and my inability to continue the story at a more preferable pace.

I seriously went through several nights of bad sleep just racking my brain for a believable way of linking this story to the original storyline.

Like, how was a 21 year old Sakura supposed to suddenly be emotional and stuff after going through a war? By right, the war should have wisened her up a little; toughened her up, in fact. But nooo. This story takes the old confused Chunin Sakura (who went around telling Naruto she loved him just to keep him from obsessing over Naruto – a choice which some may peg as stupid but I personally deem a believable bad choice on her part and an acceptable character flaw) and flings her together with an under-valued character (Kiba) whom none of us really know about aside from Naruto's brief introduction back during their Genin days.

It's really hard to work with, I tell you.

All this new character development that Kishi is throwing in our faces, though appreciated, is leaving me with the tough job of piecing together my slightly backdated version of Sakura to the new and improved super (Saiyan? Lol) Sakura.

Sigh.

Okay, excuse my babbling. Please let me know what you think via review. Was Sakura's choice of abandoning Naruto and Kiba to chase after Sasuke (though stupid) believable? Is the added inclusion of said chicken-butted Uchiha and his ever-persistent supporter Karin a good plot twist? Should there have been more fluff, less drama in this story?

Please tell me what you think and suggest to me what you believe should happen in this story. YOUR feedback is important and valuable for the continuation of this story.

Thank you! :)


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